Consistently ranked among the top law schools in the United States, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law is responding to this moment of societal challenge and building its next chapter of innovation that makes a difference.
A longstanding leader in innovative legal education, the Law School takes an interdisciplinary approach to research and teaching, drawing from a variety of academic sectors and fields. This approach enables us to graduate bold, multidimensional, and adaptive thinkers who will thrive in today’s rapidly changing legal landscape.
- Most interdisciplinary research faculty of U.S. law schools (over 50% are JD-PhDs), all producing impactful scholarship
- 3rd lowest student to faculty ratio among top U.S. law schools, with 129 full-time faculty for a student-body of 1,000 full-time students
- Innovative masters programs and joint degrees at the intersection of law, business, and technology
- Leading clinical program that changes law and advances justice and access to justice
- Comprehensive student academic, career, and personal support, including a dedicated team supporting international students in all programs
- Global alumni network of over 18,000 across more than 90 countries
The Law School is located in vibrant downtown Chicago, home to leading global law firms, international businesses, and a welcoming community. The Economist ranks Chicago as one of the world’s 10 most globally competitive cities.
We consider ourselves not just a school but a community. In addition to providing a first-class legal education, we offer a uniquely inviting and collaborative environment in which our students develop supportive, not competitive, relationships with each other and faculty. Our small, intimate community is based on mutual respect for differing ideas, perspectives, and backgrounds.
The Law School is particularly committed to being a welcoming and inclusive environment for every member of our community, and to concrete action to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion and social and racial justice. Our student body is one of the most diverse in the United States on every dimension, including 44% of JD students from traditionally underrepresented groups and approximately 25% international students across programs.
We offer a wide range of innovative courses, degrees, and programs of study, allowing students to pursue successful careers in the private sector, academia, and public interest and non-profit fields.
* The Law School’s JD programprovides a comprehensive 3-year legal education for approximately 800 of the most qualified students, including approximately 10 percent international students.
* The Law School partners with the Kellogg School of Management to offer the largest and longest-standing 3-year JDMBAin the country. Kellogg faculty also teach core business classes in the law school, available to JD and LLM students, which enhance lawyer understanding of the business contexts in which they operate.
* The Law School also partners with the McCormick School of Engineering on a comprehensive Law and Technology Initiative, which connects faculty, students, practitioners, and business leaders to create needed innovation. Students have curricular opportunities focused on entrepreneurship, innovation, and development, such as the Innovation Law and the NUvention courses.
* Starting in the spring semester of 2024, we are expanding opportunities for students to engage West Coast legal and business markets. In addition to the existing San Francisco Immersion Program, the West Coast Initiative will offer the Seattle Tech-Law Experience and the Los Angeles Entertainment, Media and Sports Law & Business Semester—three distinct opportunities for students to engage in three key West Coast markets defined by technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Other innovative programs include:
The nine-month general LLM program offers outstanding graduates of foreign law schools an opportunity to expand their knowledge of American law and legal processes, continue their studies in international law, and engage in comparative legal research. LLM students take most of their classes together with JD students and have almost all of the JD curriculum from which to choose. Graduates of the program represent more than 50 countries and hold prominent positions in many areas of practice. They include attorneys, professors, judges, corporate counsel, consultants, human rights workers, bankers, and civil servants.
Northwestern University also has outstanding Executive LLM programs, with partners in Madrid, Seoul, and Tel Aviv, which enable experienced international lawyers to achieve an LLM degree without a yearlong stay in the United States.
Northwestern has leading specialty LLM programs in Taxation and Human Rightslaw, allowing students to receive high-level training in these specialized areas, leading to careers across firms, nonprofits, and government organizations. Students in the JD and general LLM program may take most classes offered by these programs as well.
The Master of Science in Lawprogram is another reflection of the Law School’s commitment to innovation in legal education. The unique MSL curriculum for STEM-educated students and STEM professionals centers on the intersection of law, business, and technology, with specific focus areas in business law and entrepreneurship, intellectual property and patent design, and regulatory analysis and strategy.
To find out more, visit us at https://www.law.northwestern.edu/.