Case Western Reserve University School of Law

CWRU School of Law was established through an alliance between Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University. The school, which had only four faculty members in its early days, was present on the initial American Bar Association list of accredited law schools in 1924. The school was also a charter member of both the Association of American Law Schools and the Order of the Coif.

Today CWRU School of Law offers more than 200 courses that incorporate both traditional legal education and alternative educational opportunities. The school offers eight areas of concentration and nine academic centers. Ten dual degree and certificate programs are also offered, through the collaboration of graduate department and the university's professional schools. CWRU School of Law also introduced CaseArc integrated legal skills program in 2003.


Concentration options include business organizations; litigation; international law; public and regulatory institutions; criminal law; health law; and law, technology and the arts. The law school's academic centers of excellence and institutes consist of the following: the Center for Business Law and Regulation; the Center for Law, Technology, and the Arts; the Center for Professional Ethics; the Center for Social Justice; the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Conflict and Dispute Resolution (CISDR); the Law Medicine Center; the Canada-United States Law Institute; the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center; and the Law Medicine Center, which was the first health law program to be formed in the US.

CaseArc is designed to allow students to build on their legal knowledge each semester with the intention of developing legal minds that are prepared for careers in law practice, government service, or corporate work upon graduation. The program assists students in the development of interviewing, counseling, fact-gathering, legal research, writing, oral advocacy, and negotiation skills.

Additionally, CWRU School of Law offers experiential opportunities to third-year students through the Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic. The in-house clinic offers students the chance to provide legal counsel to community members who cannot otherwise afford legal services. The clinical program, which was implemented in the early 1970s, now includes the Civil Litigation Clinic, the Criminal Justice Clinic, the Community Development Clinic, and the Health Law Clinic.

The school's student run journal publications include the Law Review, the Health Matrix; Journal of Law Medicine, the Journal of International Law, Canada-United States Law Journal, and the Journal of Law, Technology, and the Internet.

Through the Judge Ben C. Green Law Library, students, faculty, and staff are granted access to reference services, curriculum-based support, personal research consultations, training sessions in technical and research areas, and more. The library also offers eight group study rooms, a computer lab, and e-mail stations. The Judge Ben C. Green Law Library boasts a large scholarly US legal research collection, and generous offerings in foreign, comparative, and international legal materials. It also functions as a selective US government and a Canadian government depository.

The student body at CWRU School of Law consists of an estimated 650 JD students and 52 LLM students from 14 countries. More than sixty-percent of the school's students come from out-of-state. The school's impressive graduate employment statistics include a placement rate of more than ninety-five percent.

Learn the 10 Factors That Matter to Big Firms More Than Where You Went to Law School