Join Our Community of Aspiring Lawyers
Our On-Campus J.D. Program at Syracuse Law gives you the core knowledge, aptitude, and skills to build your career as a profession-ready lawyer in a broad spectrum of fields.
An innovative approach to legal education, our vast and connected alumni network, and our focus on collaboration will help you create the foundation for a lifetime of success.
Areas of Excellence
Law intersects many different disciplines and fields of study. Starting in your second year, you’ll have the opportunity to explore specialized areas of the law tailored to your unique interests and career aspirations. Experiential learning opportunities in your speciality like clinic work, internships, and externships bridge the gap between theory and practice, preparing you for the realities and challenges of legal scenarios.
Below are our four Areas of Excellence, specialties that distinguish our law school as students learn from renowned scholars and participate in cutting-edge research to seek solutions to the most complex challenges of our time.
Advocacy and Litigation
Develop your advocacy and litigation skills both in and outside of the classroom. Through a blend of intra- and inter-collegiate competitions, including pioneering virtual formats, you’ll have the chance to excel on a global stage. Our track record speaks for itself, with student advocates regularly winning major awards at regional, national, and international tournaments.
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Disability Law and Policy
Disability Law is a field that touches the lives of millions, ensuring that individuals with disabilities have equal access to opportunities, resources, and justice. Broaden your understanding of how disability intersects with various legal areas and prepare to work in a range of career opportunities in federal and state government offices, private firms, and public interest organizations focused on disability law, education, employment, civil rights, and international human rights.
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Security Policy and Law
Immerse yourself in the crucial fields of national security, counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and intelligence law. This program is your gateway to a career where you can make a real impact on the safety and security of our nation. Through a combination of legal theory and practical application, you’ll explore a wide range of topics that shape the world today. Whether you’re drawn to cybersecurity, international conflicts, or the legal frameworks of national security, this program provides the skills and knowledge you need to excel.
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Technology Commercialization (Intellectual Property)
Study in the space where technology, law, and business converge, shaping the future of innovation. Through immersive classroom experiences and hands-on research projects, you’ll explore the intricate landscape of bringing groundbreaking technologies to market and uncover the secrets of tech commercialization while working with universities, federal labs, and cutting-edge startups.
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Additional Areas of Focus
Advanced Property Studies Curricular Programs prepares students for work in a number of areas of property law including real, personal, intellectual, intangible, and cultural property. The focus is on private market transactions and the public regulation thereof. Courses explore the nature of property rights and the limits of government regulation when it comes to the abridgment of these rights.
The Communications Law Curricular Program offers a foundation for understanding various areas of the communications industry, including broadcasting and the Internet, as well as cable, mobile, satellite, and broadband and landline services. The program requires students to take a concentration in courses relating to the structure and regulation of the communications industry. The program is designed to prepare students for roles as policymakers, advocates, and analysts in traditional and new media and other communications industries such as those offering wireline and wireless services.
The Corporate Counsel Curricular Program gives students the skills they need to step into corporate law positions upon graduation, whether on the legal staff of a company or with a firm that represents corporations. Students take courses in economics or finance, labor and employment law, intellectual property, business associations, and business law electives. All students completing the program take General Counsel, a course that simulates the practice of in-house staff.
The Entertainment and Sports Law Curricular Program is designed to introduce students with varied interests in fields such as sports, theatre, publishing, film, and music to the legal framework for these industries. The program encourages students to explore opportunities within the College of Law, the broader University, and in practice settings. Participation in the program permits students to demonstrate both their interest and their expertise in these fields in the search for internships and employment.
Students in the Estate Planning Curricular Program will acquire the practical skills required to meet the growing need for estate planning, estate and trust administration, wealth transfer taxes and charitable giving professionals. Students will develop both a firm theoretical foundation in the subject and a thorough understanding of how to apply what they learn by participating in the rigorous Estate Planning capstone course. The program is designed to prepare students to work in a variety of settings, including law and accounting firms, wealth management, insurance, and trust companies, and fund-raising divisions of universities and other non-profit organizations.
The Family Law and Social Policy Curricular Program is available to those students who are interested in developing expertise to comprehensively address the legal needs of families and children. This program focuses on the interrelationship between the different areas of law that affect individuals within a familial context and the different systems that may be implicated. The requirements for this curricular program are specifically designed to allow law students to explore their particular interests utilizing a multi-faceted approach which is necessary to provide holistic legal representation in the dynamic areas of family law, wills and trusts, domestic violence, elder law, and other legal issues affecting children and families.
The Institute for the Judiciary, Politics and the Media (IJPM) Curricular Program was created with the assistance of funds from the John Ben Snow Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation. The program requires students to take a concentration in courses relating to the study of how judicial institutions, public policy-making, and media coverage affect and are affected by one another. The courses are supplemented by an Independent Study with the IJPM Director. Together the courses and Independent Study promote a holistic understanding of the complex interactions between the courts, the media, and the political process. The goal is to better prepare students for roles as advocates, policy-makers, judges, judicial administrators and information officers, and legal analysts.
Orange Flex
Jumpstart your career by taking your last year of law school remotely, while working in a city of your choice. Combining online classes taken through our Online J.D. Program (JDinteractive) with an externship, Orange Flex gives you the opportunity to make connections and strengthen your professional networks in the community where you wish to work.
Residency Experiences for Global Learning
Experience the world of law through unrivaled, condensed residential courses that offer you valuable insights from alumni practitioners and foremost authorities across various legal subjects.
On-Campus J.D. students may choose to participate in upper-division “advanced legal topic” residency courses alongside their peers in the online JDinteractive program.
Residency students will have the opportunity to learn in esteemed law firms around the country or work alongside top-tier practitioners in the Syracuse area. You’ll also embark on exploration trips to major corporations, courts, and agencies, spanning cities such as NYC, D.C., Charlotte, Denver, Los Angeles, London, Geneva, Rome, and Strasbourg. Residency courses are credit bearing for J.D. Residential students. They are about a week in length, scheduled for August, early January, March, and April.
Learning Outcomes
As a On-Campus J.D. student, you will learn national and international legal doctrine, analysis of legal problems, statutory interpretation, legal writing and research, critical thinking and creative problem-solving, legal ethics, and practical application of the law.
Each of our graduates will:
- Demonstrate competence in the courses that are required of all students.
- Demonstrate competence in one or more specialized areas of U.S. or international law.
- Demonstrate understanding of the theories, historical development, and application of U.S. law.
- Demonstrate understanding of legal procedures and the basic structure of government.
- Identify the key facts, issues, reasoning, holdings, assumptions, and policies that underlie judicial decisions and independently critique them.
- Understand and apply principles of statutory interpretation.
- Determine the applicable legal rules from multiple sources of law and seek to reconcile any competing principles.
- When analyzing legal problems, graduates will identify relevant issues, apply governing law, anticipate contrary arguments, evaluate potential outcomes, and formulate coherent strategies.
- Be professional in their interactions.
- Advocate persuasively.
- Write accurately, follow accepted rules of grammar and citation, and use appropriate tone and organization.
- Find governing law and relevant secondary sources.
- Identify relevant facts, ascertain methods for discovering those facts, and evaluate the facts obtained.
- Propose solutions to problems that take into account applicable law, client interests, changed circumstances, alternative options, and practical constraints.
- Manage their time to meet deadlines.
- Identify and resolve ethical issues consistent with the profession’s ethical standards.
- Demonstrate commitment to the profession by helping to meet the legal needs of their communities and by promoting the fair administration of justice.
- Recognize differing perspectives in resolving legal issues.