Unit Requirements
JD students must complete all first-year required courses, plus an additional 81 approved quarter units of elective coursework.
First-year JD students must abide by the following guidelines for elective credit:
During the Autumn Quarter, a first-year student may take only designated first-year required courses.
During Winter Quarter they may take no more than 5 units of electives.
During Spring quarter they must take 3-8 units of electives.
Elective courses are limited to those within the Law School, with the exception that first-year JD students may take a physical education course or music lessons each quarter but those courses will not count toward residency or graduation. Limited exceptions to this can be made if a course is required in the Spring Quarter for a joint degree program.
Experiential Learning Requirement
Students must complete 8 units of coursework designated as fulfilling the Experiential Learning (EL) requirement pursuant to ABA Standard 303.
Pathway A – Full-time Clinic:
Students who complete any of Stanford Law School’s full-time clinics opens in a new tab are deemed “Pathway A” students. These students will automatically satisfy the ABA Experiential Learning Requirement.
Pathway B – Self-Design:
Students who do not enroll in one of Stanford Law School’s full-time clinics are deemed “Pathway B” students. Pathway B students must submit to the Registrar’s Office a Self-Design Plan specifying which courses the student has taken and/or intends to take to satisfy the ABA Experiential Learning Requirement and the SLS Professional Writing graduation requirement.
Courses that count towards the EL requirement are identified on the Registrar’s website opens in a new tab and in course listings opens in a new tab. Students choosing Pathway B to fulfill this requirement should note that not all courses are offered every year and that enrollment for some courses may be limited.
All students who elect Pathway B must include a Professional Writing opens in a new tab (“PW”) course of at least two units within their individually tailored plan. A course designated as a “PW” course is defined as one in which the students engage in the sort of professional writing common to practicing lawyers, e.g. writing briefs, drafting contracts, etc. PW courses include only those approved by the Curriculum Committee and explicitly classified as a PW class before the term begins. Externships and courses outside the law school do not satisfy the Professional Writing requirement. Courses that are designated as both EL and PW courses can count for both requirements.
Ethics Requirement
JD students must complete at least one advanced course that contains one or more units of ethics instruction. Only a course approved by the Curriculum Committee and explicitly classified as an ethics course before the quarter begins satisfies this requirement.
Writing Requirement
In addition to first-year Legal Writing and Federal Litigation, all students must complete one course of at least two units in which a principal part of the assigned work is a paper or other written product (an “R” paper), and one course of at least two units in which a principal part of the assigned work is typical of the sort of writing done by practicing lawyers, such as writing briefs and drafting contracts (a professional Writing “PW” course). Only courses approved by the Curriculum Committee and explicitly classified as an R or a PW course before the term begins can satisfy these requirements.
A course designated as an “R” course is defined as one in which the written product is substantial and is based on open-ended research by the student.
A Directed Research paper may count as the equivalent of an “R” course with the approval of the supervising faculty member.
Satisfactory completion of a Senior Thesis or Research Track counts as the equivalent of an “R” course.
Double-Counting Requirements
Students cannot use a single course to satisfy the “R,” “Ethics,” and/or “Experiential Learning” requirements. If a course potentially satisfies multiple graduation requirements, then the student must choose which graduation requirement the course should be attributed to, with one exception. While typically students wishing to use a course to satisfy the Experiential Learning requirement cannot double-count that course for other graduation requirements, and must use that course solely to satisfy the Experiential Learning requirement, students may use a course designated as both an EL course and a PW course to satisfy both EL and PW requirements.
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