Photograph: Graduates at commencement.

Juris Doctor Degree

Washburn Law recognizes that there are many different paths into and out of law school. To provide its graduates with the maximum flexibility for career options, Washburn Law has carefully designed its first-year and upper-level curriculum, including its requirements and electives, to ensure that graduates from its juris doctor program achieve and exceed the ABA mandated learning outcomes. Upon graduation from Washburn Law,

  1. 1. Graduates will demonstrate knowledge of the law and the legal system.
    1. 1.1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the terms, rules, and principles of law.
    2. 1.2. Students will read authority, identify the rules within the authority, and synthesize those rules into a logical framework for analysis.
    3. 1.3. Students will demonstrate an understanding of organization, hierarchy, and relationships within the legal system.
    4. 1.4. Students will demonstrate an understanding of primary and secondary sources of law and the ways in which they relate to one another.
  2. 2. Graduates will demonstrate analytical and problem-solving skills.
    1. 2.1. Students will apply controlling legal principles to legal problems.
    2. 2.2. Students will use analogical reasoning to solve legal problems.
    3. 2.3. Students will use policy-based reasoning to solve legal problems.
  3. 3. Graduates will communicate effectively.
    1. 3.1. Students will write in a clear, concise, well-organized, professional manner that is appropriate to the audience and the circumstances.
    2. 3.2. Students will speak in a clear, concise, well-organized, professional manner that is appropriate to the audience and the circumstances.
    3. 3.3. Students will demonstrate active listening in communications with others, including legal professionals and laypersons.
  4. 4. Graduates will demonstrate competency in legal practice skills.
    1. 4.1. Students will demonstrate the ability to conduct legal research.
    2. 4.2. Students will demonstrate the ability to conduct a factual investigation.
    3. 4.3. Students will demonstrate the ability to interview and counsel a client.
    4. 4.4. Students will demonstrate the ability to negotiate and advocate on behalf of a client in appropriate circumstances.
    5. 4.5. Students will demonstrate the ability to draft documents used in legal practice.
  5. 5. Graduates will possess the requisite skills to recognize and resolve dilemmas in an ethical and professional manner.
    1. 5.1. Students will articulate the sources, structure, and substance of the laws governing the ethics of the legal profession.
    2. 5.2. When presented with a dilemma drawn from case-based or hypothetical facts, students will articulate the relevant and applicable ethical standards, apply those ethical standards, and propose one or more resolutions that result in an ethical outcome.
    3. 5.3. Students will consistently exercise professional and ethical responsibilities.
  6. 6. Graduates will demonstrate knowledge of the importance of service to the profession and to the community at large, both nationally and internationally.
    1. 6.1. Students will demonstrate an awareness of and a willingness to contribute to the profession's responsibility to ensure access to justice.
    2. 6.2. Students will demonstrate a willingness to contribute to serving the underserved and traditionally marginalized communities.
    3. 6.3. Students will understand comparative perspectives on law, whether from international or foreign legal systems, other academic disciplines, or other critical viewpoints, and will use those perspectives as tools for critiquing or challenging the role of law in society.
    4. 6.4. Students will recognize the existence and value of diversity both within the legal profession and among the clients it serves.

The Washburn Law curriculum is designed to enable graduates to successfully participate in the professional environment that most juris doctors aspire to work in as practicing lawyers or as professionals in other disciplines.

Revised: May 10, 2017.

Short URL for this page:
https://washburnlaw.edu/jd

Washburn Law recognizes that there are many different paths into and out of law school. To provide its graduates with the maximum flexibility for career options, Washburn Law has carefully designed its first-year and upper-level curriculum, including its requirements and electives, to ensure that graduates from its juris doctor program achieve and exceed the ABA mandated learning outcomes. Our curriculum evolves with the practice of law; consequently, it is subject to change.

Completion of the J.D. degree program at Washburn Law entitles students to apply to take the attorney licensing exam (the bar exam) in every U.S. jurisdiction. To be licensed to practice law, graduates of Washburn Law who earn the J.D. degree are required to pass a bar examination and a character and fitness assessment in the jurisdiction where the student/graduate seeks to practice law.