Program Requirements

90 credits required.

By ABA standards, students must complete all coursework for a Juris Doctorate within 84 months of entry absent extraordinary circumstances.

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
LAW 100	INTRODUCTION TO LAW	0
LAW 015	INTEGRATED STUDY GROUP	0
LAW 101	FIRST YEAR TRIAL PRACTICUM	0
LAW 104	LEGAL RESEARCH I	1
LAW 116	LEGAL RESEARCH II	1
LAW 106	LEGAL WRITING I	2
LAW 105	LEGAL WRITING II	2
LAW 162	JUSTICE, LAWYERING, AND LEADERSHIP	2
LAW 109	CONTRACTS	4
LAW 108	CRIMINAL LAW	3
LAW 107	TORTS	4
LAW 103	CIVIL PROCEDURE	4
LAW 111	PROPERTY	4
LAW 112	CONSTITUTIONAL LAW I	3
LAW 115	CONSTITUTIONAL LAW II	3
LAW 114	LEGAL ETHICS & PROF RESPONSIB	3
LAW 113	EVIDENCE	4
LAW 117	LEGAL RESEARCH SMALL GROUP	0
Electives		42
Professional Skills Course Requirement		6
Advanced Writing Requirement		2
Total Hours		90

 Regulations and Academic Requirements

Academic requirements for a Juris Doctor degree are explained in more detail in the Drake Law Student Handbook, and all regulations and academic requirements must meet American Bar Association standards for accreditation.

Students must take required courses in sequence as listed in the Student Handbook except in hardship cases.

Students may complete internships or field placements for credit toward the 90 credits needed for graduation.  Internships and field placements are governed by the rules set out in the Student Handbook.  Internships and field placements provide substantial lawyering experience that is reasonably similar to the experience of a lawyer advising or representing a client or engaging in other lawyering tasks in a setting outside a law clinic, under the supervision of a licensed attorney or an individual otherwise qualified to supervise.  Students may not enroll in an internship or field placement until they have completed 30 credit hours of coursework.  Students must maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 2.25 to be eligible to register and participate in an internship or field placement.

Students may not credit more than 15 hours of internships, 15 hours of clinic classes, or a combination of clinic and internship classes totaling more than 18 hours toward the 90 credits required for graduation.

Distance education courses, as defined in the student handbook, must be approved by the faculty through the regular curriculum approval process before they are eligible for credit toward a degree.  A student may not receive credit for more than 15 credit hours from qualifying distance education courses, and no more than 3 credits in distance education courses may be taken outside of Drake Law School.  A student must complete 31 credit hours toward a Juris Doctorate before enrolling in distance education courses.

A minimum of 69 credit hours of the 90 needed for graduation must be earned in “regularly scheduled class session” in qualifying courses.  Traditional class room, skills simulation courses, and clinical courses will count toward the minimum for “regularly scheduled class sessions.”  The five categories below do not count toward the 69-credit hour minimum:

1. Internships and field placements 

2. Independent Study, LAW 615

3. Iowa Supreme Court Scholar Research Opportunity, LAW 201

4. Interdisciplinary and Joint Degree credit courses taken outside the Law School

5. Drake Law Review, Agricultural Law Journal, moot court, and mock trial competitions.

Although excluded from the list of “regularly scheduled class sessions,” the Law School will award credit for all Law School courses, including the above-listed courses, and count them toward the 90 credit hours necessary for graduation.

No more than six credit hours of Moot Court activities may count toward the 90 credits required for graduation.

Law students may apply a maximum of six hours of elective coursework toward graduation by taking upper-division or graduate courses taught in other colleges or departments of Drake University or at a college with which Drake Law School has a joint degree program. Interdisciplinary credit will be applied as ungraded credit to approved courses in which the student receives a grade of C+ or above.

Law students completing a joint degree through an approved joint degree program may receive up to 9 hours of ungraded credit in the Law School for approved coursework in another college or department for classes taken contemporaneously.

Candidates qualifying for a degree must complete the required credit hours for graduation and have at least a 2.25 cumulative GPA.  The following grading system is used for law classes issuing a standard letter grade:

Grade Values

Grade	Point Value
A+	4.00
A	4.00
A-	3.70
B+	3.30
B	3.00
B-	2.70
C+	2.30
C	2.00
C-	1.70
D	1.00
D-	1.00
F	0.00

In selected courses, evaluation of a student’s performance is not possible by assigning qualitative grades.  Grades of CR (credit), NC (no credit), F, and I (incomplete) are used.  A grade of NC does not affect a student’s grade point average.  A grade of F is counted as 0 in the GPA. 

The grade of “I” indicates a student has not submitted all materials for a final grade.  If the student does not complete the course within the time period set by the professor, the grade will become an F.

A student may not graduate/earn a degree from Drake University with an “I” (incomplete) or “IP” (in progress) notation on their transcript.

First year courses must adhere to a mandatory grade distribution that sets a mean grade between 2.90 and 3.10, with a median grade of B.  Legal research is exempt from this grading curve.

Students who receive a “C-” or below in a required course must retake the course and receive a grade higher than a “C-” in order to graduate.  The grade received in the initial taking of the class, as well as the grade earned in retaking the class, will be calculated into the student’s grade point average.