A law school in the United States is an educational institution where students obtain a professional education in law after first obtaining an undergraduate degree.
Law schools in the U.S. confer the degree of Juris Doctor (J.D.), which is a professional doctorate.- Under "Data notes" this article mentions that the J.D. is a professional doctorate.- . Under "other references", this discusses differences between academic and professional doctorates, and contains a statement that the J.D. is a professional doctorate- - Report by the German Federal Ministry of Education analysing the Chronicle of Higher Education from the U.S. and stating that the J.D. is a professional doctorate- It is the degree usually required to practice law in the United States, and the final degree obtained by most practitioners in the field. Juris Doctor programs at law schools are usually three-year programs if done full-time, or four-year programs if done via evening classes. Some U.S. law schools include an Accelerated JD program.
Other degrees that are awarded include the Master of Laws (LL.M.) and the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D.) degrees, which can be more international in scope. Most law schools are colleges, schools or other units within a larger post-secondary institution, such as a university. Legal education is very different in the United States than in many other parts of the world.
Terminology A 2006 study found that the names of the 192 law schools approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) at that time included one of five generic identifiers: "school of law" (118), "college of law" (38), "law school" (28), "law center" (7), and "faculty of law" (1). However, in ordinary speech, "law school" is universally preferred for its "brevity and clarity".
Admission In the United States, American Bar Assocation (ABA) law schools require a bachelor's degree in any discipline, a satisfactory undergraduate record, and a satisfactory score on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) or another standardized test (such as the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) or JD-Next) as prerequisites for admission.
California, which has the most non-ABA-approved, state-accredited schools has the requirement of 60 credits toward a bachelor's degree.
Globally, the requirement of a bachelor's degree is one of the most distinctive features of the American law school. Elsewhere, it is routine to award law degrees to undergraduates. In contrast, a typical American lawyer must first complete seven years of postsecondary education before they become eligible for a license to practice law. Another significant distinction is that, unlike many other countries where law professors usually hold research doctorates, most American law professors have earned only the same J.D. degree which will be awarded to the students they are teaching.
Though undergraduate GPA and LSAT score are the most important factors considered by law school admissions committees, individual factors are also somewhat important. Personal factors are evaluated through essays, short-answer questions, letters of recommendation, and other application materials. The standards for grades and LSAT scores vary by school. Interviews—either in person or via video chat—may be optional, or invitational, application components. Many law schools actively seek applicants from outside the traditional pool to boost racial, economic, and experiential diversity on campus. Most law schools now factor in extracurricular activities, work experience, and unique courses of study in their evaluation of applicants. A growing number of law school applicants have several years of work experience, and correspondingly fewer law students enter immediately after completing their undergraduate education. However, law schools generally only consider undergraduate and not post-collegiate transcripts when considering an applicant for admission; the former are considered by law schools to be a more uniform standard than the latter for judging academic performance.
Many law schools offer substantial scholarships and grants to many of their students, dramatically reducing the actual cost of attending law school compared to listed tuition prices. Some law schools condition scholarships on maintaining a certain GPA.
, there were 128,641 students enrolled in JD programs at the 204 approved ABA law schools. A decade later, in 2023, J.D. programs enrolled 116,897 students at the 196 institutions then approved by the ABA. Since 2016, women enrolled in American law schools have outnumbered men. In 2024, 56.09 percent of JD students enrolled at ABA-accredited schools were women.
Accreditation To sit for the bar exam, the vast majority of state bar associations require accreditation of an applicant's law school by the American Bar Association. The ABA has promulgated detailed requirements covering every aspect of a law school, down to the precise contents of the law library and the minimum number of minutes of instruction required to receive a J.D. As of 2026, there were 198 ABA-accredited law schools that awarded the J.D. The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia, a school operated by the United States Army that conducts a post-J.D. program for military attorneys and offers the LLM, is also ABA-accredited.
Non-ABA law schools In addition, individual state legislatures or bar examiners may maintain a separate approval system, which is open to non-ABA accredited schools. The State Bar of California is the most well-know example and maintains a separate approval system which is open to non-ABA accredited schools. As of 2026, 21 law schools are approved by the State Bar of California. This allows them to take the bar exam in California and once they have passed that exam, a large number of states allow those students to sit for their bars (after practicing for a certain number of years in California). The other states that have non-ABA accredited law schools are Alabama, Massachusetts, and Tennessee.
Non-ABA approved law schools have much lower bar passage rates than ABA-approved law schools, and do not submit or disclose employment outcome data to the ABA.Michael Simkovic & Frank McIntyre, Populist Outrage, Reckless Empirics: A Review of Failing Law Schools, Northwestern University Law Review, Feb. 3, 2014,
Unaccredited schools Some schools are not accredited by a state or the American Bar Association. As of 2026, there are 8 of these unaccedited law schools, all located in California. Their first year students are required to take the First-Year Law Students' Examination (FYLSE), also known as the ("baby bar"), which then authorizes continuing their legal studies. Graduates of non-ABA accredited schools may then take the California Bar Examination. After passing the Bar, they are then licensed to practice law in California. Many other jurisdictions do not allow graduates of unaccredited law schools to sit for their state bar examination. In California, graduates of non-ABA approved law schools have much lower bar passage rates than same-race graduates of ABA-approved law schools in the same state.
Fields of study Law students may concentrate on a specific area of law after completing the first year, though law schools vary in terms of which fields they may offer as specializations. Standard fields include: Administrative law Admiralty law (maritime) Commercial law Corporate law Criminal law Entertainment law Environmental law Family law Health law (health care) and Public health law Immigration law Information technology law Insurance law International law and International human rights law Intellectual property law Labour law Patent law Property law Public interest law Sports law Tax law
Curriculum Law students are referred to as 1Ls, 2Ls, and 3Ls based on their year of study. In the United States, the American Bar Association does not mandate a particular curriculum for 1Ls. ABA Standard 302(a)(1) requires only the study of "substantive law" that will lead to "effective and responsible participation in the legal profession." However, most law schools have their own mandatory curriculum for 1Ls, which typically includes:
Civil procedure (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) Constitutional law (United States Constitution, especially Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, and the Commerce Clause) Contracts (Article 2 (Sales) of the Uniform Commercial Code and Restatement (Second) of Contracts) Criminal law (General common law, Model Penal Code, and state criminal statutes) Property (General common law and Restatement of Property) Torts (General common law, Restatement (Second) and Restatement (Third) of Torts) Legal research (Use of a law library and computer-assisted legal research, including both LexisNexis and Westlaw) Legal writing (including objective analysis, persuasive analysis, and legal citation)
These basic courses are intended to provide an overview of the broad study of law. Not all ABA-approved law schools offer all of these courses in the 1L year; for example, many schools do not offer constitutional law and/or criminal law until the second and third years. Most schools also require Evidence but rarely offer the course to first-year students. Some schools combine legal research and legal writing into a single year-long "lawyering skills" course, which may also include a small oral argument component.
Because the first year curriculum is always fixed, most schools do not allow 1L students to select their own course schedules, and instead hand them their schedules at new student orientation.
At most schools, the grade for an entire course depends upon the outcome of only one or two examinations, usually in essay form, which are administered via students' laptop computers in the classroom with the assistance of specialized software. Some professors may use multiple choice exams in part or in full if the course material is suitable for it (e.g., professional responsibility). Legal research and writing courses tend to have several major projects (some graded, some not) and a final exam in essay form. Most schools impose a mandatory grade curve (see below).
The ABA also requires that all students at ABA-approved schools take an ethics course in professional responsibility. Typically, this is an upper-level course; most students take it in the 2L year. This requirement was added after the Watergate scandal, which seriously damaged the public image of the profession because President Richard Nixon and most of his alleged co-conspirators were lawyers. The ABA desired to demonstrate that the legal profession could regulate itself, wished to reassert and maintain its position of leadership, and hoped to prevent direct federal regulation of the profession.
As of 2004, to ensure that students' research and writing skills do not deteriorate, the ABA has added an upper division writing requirement. Law students must take at least one course, or complete an independent study project, as a 2L or 3L that requires the writing of a paper for credit.
Most law courses are less about doctrine and more about learning how to analyze legal problems, read cases, distill facts and apply law to facts.
In 1968, the Ford Foundation began disbursing $6 million to persuade law schools to make "law school clinics" part of their curriculum. Clinics were intended to give practical experience in law practice while providing pro bono representation to the poor. However, conservative critics charge that the clinics have been used instead as an avenue for the professors to engage in left-wing political activism. Critics cite the financial involvement of the Ford Foundation as the turning point when such clinics began to change from giving practical experience to engaging in advocacy.Heather Mac Donald. "Clinical, Cynical." The Wall Street Journal. January 11, 2006; Page A14