University of Maryland School of Law

Overview

The academic program of the University of Maryland School of Law is designed to help students acquire the four basic characteristics of a lawyer: knowledge, professionalism, a broad perspective on the social implications of legal issues, and the ability to communicate effectively.

Students at the school have many legal writing opportunities, both required and elective. The Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research Program engages students in increasingly complex writing assignments.

Co-curricular activities provide additional opportunities for students to enhance their writing and advocacy skills. Through a broad range of electives, the law school’s curriculum provides students with opportunities for in-depth study in many areas of law. Its certificate programs in environmental law and health law have received national recognition.

The University of Maryland School of Law offers specialty programs focusing on intellectual property law; business law; clinical law; international law; legislation, politics, and public policy; and women, leadership, and equality. The school’s numerous public service and research centers provide students ample access to interdisciplinary education and cutting-edge research, along with the opportunity to observe and influence the creation of public policy.

The Thurgood Marshall Law Library contains more than 400,000 volumes of Anglo-American legal materials as well as outstanding international and foreign law collections; it also offers an extensive array of electronic resources. The University of Maryland campus includes other professional schools and academic centers, a career development office that offers diverse job placement services, and three courtrooms.

Student-Faculty Ratio 11.7:1

Admission Criteria

	LSAT	GPA
25th-75th Percentile	156-163	3.31-3.71
Median*	162	3.53

The above LSAT and GPA data pertain to the fall 2011 entering class.
Medians have been calculated by averaging the 25th- and 75th-percentile values released by the law schools and have been rounded up to the nearest whole number for LSAT scores and to the nearest one-hundredth for GPAs.

Admission Statistics

Approximate number of applications	3,504
Number accepted	712
Percentage accepted	20.3%

The above admission details are based on fall 2011 data.

Class Ranking and Grades

Class rankings are only calculated at the end of the fall and spring semesters. Class rankings for graduates are determined in May of each year. They include the day, evening, and part-time day graduates from May of that year as well as the graduates from the preceding December and July graduation dates.

The law school uses the following letter grading system in which each letter grade is awarded points on a four-point scale:

A+	4.33
A	4.00
A-	3.67
B+	3.33
B	3.00
B-	2.67
C+	2.33
C	2.00
C-	1.67
D+	1.33
D	1.00
D-	0.67
F	0.00

A student’s grade point average is computed by multiplying the point equivalent for the letter grade for each course by its weight in semester hours, adding the products for each course, and dividing the sum by the number of semester hours taken.

Incomplete Grades
The grade I (Incomplete) may be given to students who have a proper excuse for failure to present themselves for examinations or to complete any other work that may be required by the instructor in time for the instructor to complete grading by the grading due date. It is not used to signify work of inferior quality. A grade of Incomplete may not be carried for more than one semester without the approval of the Assistant Dean for Registration & Enrollment.

Withdrawal from Courses
A grade of W reflects a student’s withdrawal from a course, either voluntary or required, after the add/drop period. A grade of WA reflects that a student has been withdrawn administratively, and a grade of WD indicates a student’s withdrawal from school.

Grading in Year-long Courses
Grading guidelines for year-long courses, such as clinics and Trial Planning and Advocacy, are as follows: at the end of the fall semester, the student will receive a grade of NM indicating that no grade is available; at the end of the spring semester, the student will receive a letter grade for all work done in the clinic or course. On the student’s transcript, this letter grade will be listed for each semester according to the number of credits attributed to each semester, and it will replace the NM originally listed at the end of the fall semester. A student who is permitted to withdraw from the law school after completing one semester may receive a grade for the work done during that semester.

Credit/no Credit option
For certain courses, a Credit/No Credit system is used. A student who chooses the Credit/No Credit option will be assigned a grade by the Assistant Dean for Registration & Enrollment only after the student has earned a grade of at least C- (1.67). The grade CR (Credit) or NC (No Credit), as the case may be, will be recorded on the student’s academic record. Neither grade will have an impact on the cumulative grade point average, but only the CR grade will cause credits to be earned toward degree requirements.

Grade normalization (Curve)

Minimum GPAs Required (Based on May 2010 graduation class)

Minimum GPA required to fall within the top 10% of the class	3.73
Minimum GPA required to fall within the top 25% of the class	3.55
Minimum GPA required to fall within the top 33% of the class	3.47
Minimum GPA required to fall within the top 50% of the class	3.28
Minimum GPA required to fall within the top 75% of the class	2.94
Median GPA	3.27
Minimum GPA required for graduation	1.67

Honors

Honor	Criteria
Order of the Coif	Top 10%
summa cum laude	Top five students
magna cum laude	Top 10%
cum laude	Top one-third of students

Awards

Name of Award	Description
Thomas Prizes	Awarded to the graduate with the first highest scholastic average
Larry B. Shoda Award	Awarded to the evening student who has demonstrated academic excellence
Joseph Bernstein Fund Prizes	Awarded for the best legal writing in each student journal
Hoffberger Clinical Law Prize	Awarded for outstanding work in clinical law program
Public Service Award	Awarded for the legal work associated with public service

Journals

The Maryland Law Review, first published in 1936, is the oldest journal at the University of Maryland School of Law. It publishes four issues annually. These issues contain scholarly work by professors, practitioners, and judges in the traditional law review format. The review also publishes legal symposia. Endnotes is the online companion to the Maryland Law Review. This online publication features response pieces to its print articles, non-traditional law review articles, and student pieces.

The Journal of Business & Technology Law is the student-run successor to The Business Lawyer. With a focus on matters at the intersection of business and technology, it publishes analytical articles by leading academics, judges, and practitioners. It also provides a unique forum for scholarly discourse on issues arising from new business and technology courts at the state level.

The Journal of Health Care Law and Policy serves as a forum for interdisciplinary discussion of leading issues in health law, medicine, and health policy. Its contributors have included physicians, legal scholars, health law practitioners, leaders in health policy, and experts in philosophy, public health, sociology, and other disciplines that consider issues related to healthcare. Publishing two issues annually, the journal disseminates solution-based articles that are pertinent to problems confronting health law practitioners and health policymakers.

The University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender & Class focuses on issues of race, religion, gender, and class. It provides a forum that reflects the diversity of the backgrounds, interests, and concerns of students. Each year, the journal publishes two issues and hosts an annual symposium that explores a current legal topic related to race, religion, gender, or class.

The Maryland Journal of International Law (MJIL) is the newest student-edited international law journal at the University of Maryland School of Law. It provides a unique forum for a wide range of issues of international and comparative law. This revived journal will continue the legacy of the “Maryland Journal of International Law and Trade,” which was once published at the School of Law.

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Moot Court

The moot court program at the University of Maryland School of Law strives to develop students’ oral advocacy and appellate writing skills while challenging them to understand the nuances required to excel in appellate advocacy. Eligible students may participate in Moot Court in either or both the fall and spring semesters. The best advocates are invited to join the Moot Court Board. The Moot Court Board is comprised of students who have demonstrated exceptional ability in appellate brief writing and oral arguing.

The Annual Fall Moot Court Competition is held early in the fall semester for second-year day and third-year evening students. Students who participate are responsible for composing an appellate brief based on a hypothetical case.

Students who participate in the International Moot Court Competition receive credit for intramural brief and other course-related activities. Select students from the course are chosen to represent the University of Maryland School of Law at the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition.

The Morris Brown Myerowitz Moot Court Competition consists of an appellate brief and oral argument. Participants receive a hypothetical case to research and defend. Each participant must write a complete appellate brief and present an oral argument before a panel of judges. The top three participants become the part of National Moot Court Team and represent the law school at the National Moot Court Competition held in New York.

Clinical Programs

The Clinical Law Program provides opportunities to students to work with faculty members on real-life cases. It covers the integration of theory and practice through legal training combined with classroom teaching and real-life lawyering experiences

Students enrolled in clinic programs represent clients singularly or in teams of two or three and give advice to individuals and groups and engage in formal and informal advocacy, as well as transactional work. Students can participate in the following clinic curriculum:

• Access to Justice Clinic: Effective Assistance of Counsel at Bail
• Appellate Advocacy Clinic
• Appellate and Post-conviction Advocacy Clinic
• Civil Rights of Persons With Disabilities Clinic
• Clinic II
• Community Justice Clinic
• Consumer Protection Clinic
• Criminal Defense Clinic: Federal and State Litigation
• Drug Policy and Public Health Strategies Clinic
• Environmental Law Clinic
• General Practice Clinic
• Health Care Delivery and Child Welfare Legal Issues Clinic: The Challenge of the Aids Epidemic
• Health Care Delivery and Child Welfare Seminar: The Aids Example: Legal Theory and Practice
• Immigration Clinic
• Intellectual Property Law Clinic
• International and Comparative Law Clinic
• Juvenile Law, Children’s Issues and Legislative Advocacy Clinic
• Law, Policy and Practices of Community Recovery: Legal Theory and Practice
• Low Income Taxpayer Clinic
• Mediation Clinic
• Mississippi Center for Justice Clinic
• Public Health Law Clinic
• Re-entry Of Ex-offenders Seminar: Legal Theory and Practice
• Tobacco Control Seminar: Legal Theory and Practice
• Workers Rights Clinic

Placement Facts

Starting Salaries (2010 Graduates employed Full-Time)

Private sector (25th-75th percentile)	$50,000-$125,000
Median in the private sector	$70,000
Median in public service	$50,000

Employment Details

Graduates known to be employed at graduation	83.7%
Graduates known to be employed nine months after graduation	93.3%

Areas of Legal Practice

Graduates employed In	Percentage
Law Firms	36.4%
Business and Industry	14.4%
Government	23.1%
Public Interest Organizations	9.8%
Judicial Clerkships	13.6%
Academia	2.3%
Unknown	0.4%

Externships/Internships

Externships

• The University of Maryland School of Law’s externships offer students opportunities to learn in supervised governmental and not-for-profit organization settings about significant aspects of law and its practice. The law school offers a semester-long externship with public service organizations in South Africa.

Internships

• First-year students gain exposure to the court system in their first summer and many second-year students through judicial internships. Students also work with judges during the school year. All courts in Maryland and the DC Superior Court, as well as many of the federal courts take first-year students as judicial interns.

Student organizations

• Alternative Dispute Resolution Group
• American Constitution Society for Law & Policy
• Asian/Pacific-American Law Student Association
• Black Law Student Association
• Business Law Society
• Christian Legal Society
• Criminal Law Association
• Cycling Club
• Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Association
• Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
• Immigration Law and Policy Association
• International Law Society
• Jewish Law Students Association
• Latino/a Law Students Association
• Law Students for Reproductive Justice
• LGBT Law Student Alliance
• Legally Sound - A Cappella Choir
• Maryland Education Law Project
• Maryland Environmental Law Society
• Maryland Intellectual Property Student Association
• Maryland Law Service Corps
• The Maryland Public Interest Law Project, Inc.
• Mediators Beyond Borders - Partnering for Peace & Reconciliation
• Moot Court
• Muslim Legal Society
• National Lawyers Guild
• Phi Alpha Delta
• Phi Delta Phi
• Real Estate Association
• The Republican Law Society
• Softball Team
• Student Animal Legal Defense Fund
• Student Bar Association
• Student Health Law Organization
• Student Honor Board
• Students Supporting the Women’s Law Center
• The Trial Team
• University of Maryland Association of Legislative Law
• University of Maryland Law Democrats
• Women’s Bar Association

References

• http://www.law.umaryland.edu/
• http://premium.usnews.com/
• http://www.nalplawschoolsonline.org/