Juris Doctor

After gaining the necessary foundation and skills in their first year, students enjoy a robust curriculum and the chance to delve into a diverse array of subjects. In addition to meeting upper-level requirements, we encourage you to tailor your legal study to align with your unique interests, and many of our students go on to add a specific focus by participating in one of certificate programs or our clinical and externship placements. You can also take advantage of our signature Centers for Excellence in advocacy, business and transactional law, children and family law, international and comparative law, intellectual property and technology law, oil and gas law, and law and government.   

• Core courses. In addition to the first-year curriculum, students must complete a range of core courses developed to provide a comprehensive legal foundation. These courses include: 
  • Professional Responsibility
  • Constitutional Law II
  • Civil Procedure II
  • Criminal Procedure
  • Evidence
• Perspective on law courses. Students must also select at least one course focusing on a particular area of law. These courses include areas such as artificial intelligence, corporate compliance, family law, international law, natural resources law,  race and the law, tax law and tribal law. In choosing electives, it is important to remember that law school is an opportunity to provide a broad foundation in the law. Therefore, we encourage students to select courses across a wide range of topics. Even if they know they want to specialize in a certain area, studying other areas of law helps them to understand the impact on their chosen specialty. 
• Upper-level writing requirement. Each student completes a rigorous writing experience that reflects the core values of supervised rewriting and individualized feedback. Students undertake supervised rewriting to better organize contents, further develop a point or thesis, recast ideas in more sophisticated language, achieve analytical flow and clarity, and furnish accurate and proper citations.
• Upper-Level Oral Presentation Requirement. This requirement reflects the core values of students' ability to speak and listen to others in a professional manner that is appropriate to the audience and the circumstances. All students in their second or third year of law school make a substantial oral presentation. This presentation can take place in the context of a law school course or as a member of a competition team.  
• Skills courses. Students also take six additional credit hours of skills courses to gain the experience to navigate the legal landscape better. These courses cover a range of practical skills from cross-examination techniques and legal research to drafting contracts, negotiation and interviewing and counseling clients. Students can also satisfy the skills requirement through participation in Third Year Anywhere® or Washburn Law's other externship programs.
• Multiple assessment courses. For students needing additional academic support, Washburn Law offers these foundation courses, which include exercises, quizzes and other activities designed to provide students with assessment and faculty feedback throughout the semester. 

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. Graduates will demonstrate knowledge of the law and the legal system.
   1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the terms, rules, and principles of law.
   2. Students will read authority, identify the rules within the authority, and synthesize those rules into a logical framework for analysis.
   3. Students will demonstrate an understanding of organization, hierarchy, and relationships within the legal system.
   4. Students will demonstrate an understanding of primary and secondary sources of law and the ways in which they relate to one another.
2. Graduates will demonstrate analytical and problem-solving skills
   1. Students will apply controlling legal principles to legal problems.
   2. Students will use analogical reasoning to solve legal problems.
   3. Students will use policy-based reasoning to solve legal problems.
3. Graduates will communicate effectively.
   1. Students will write in a clear, concise, well-organized, professional manner that is appropriate to the audience and the circumstances.
   2. Students will speak in a clear, concise, well-organized, professional manner that is appropriate to the audience and the circumstances.
   3. Students will demonstrate active listening in communications with others, including legal professionals and laypersons.
4. Graduates will demonstrate competency in legal practice skills.
   1. Students will demonstrate the ability to conduct legal research.
   2. Students will demonstrate the ability to conduct a factual investigation.
   3. Students will demonstrate the ability to interview and counsel a client.
   4. Students will demonstrate the ability to negotiate and advocate on behalf of a client in appropriate circumstances.
   5. Students will demonstrate the ability to draft documents used in legal practice.
5. Graduates will possess the requisite skills to recognize and resolve dilemmas in an ethical and professional manner.
   1. Students will articulate the sources, structure, and substance of the laws governing the ethics of the legal profession.
   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. Students will consistently exercise professional and ethical responsibilities.
6. Graduates will demonstrate knowledge of the importance of service to the profession and to the community at large, both nationally and internationally.
   1. Students will demonstrate an awareness of and a willingness to contribute to the profession's responsibility to ensure access to justice.
   2. Students will demonstrate a willingness to contribute to serving the underserved and traditionally marginalized communities.
   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. Students will recognize the existence and value of diversity both within the legal profession and among the clients it serves.