| Boston College Law School | |
| Motto | Αἰέν ἀριστεύειν |
|---|---|
| Established | 1926 |
| School type | Private Jesuit |
| Dean | Vincent Rougeau |
| Location | Newton, Massachusetts, US |
| Enrollment | 794 [1] |
| Faculty | 103 (Fall) 110 (Spring) [1] |
| USNWR ranking | 27 [2] |
| Bar pass rate | 94.0% [1] |
| Website | www.bc.edu/schools/law |
Boston College Law School (BC Law) is one of the six professional graduate schools at Boston College. Located approximately 1.5 miles from the main Boston College campus in Chestnut Hill, Boston College Law School is situated on a 40-acre (160,000 m2) wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts.
With approximately 800 students and 125 faculty members, the Law School is one of the largest of BC's seven graduate and professional schools.[3] Admission to BC Law is among the most selective in the United States, with 18% of applicants being accepted in 2010.[4] 29% of the students are AHANA. Reflecting its Jesuit heritage, BC Law has established programs in human rights, social justice and public interest law. Its faculty played a part in unsuccessfully arguing for the repeal of the Solomon Amendment, presenting oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court in Rumsfeld v. FAIR. Considered a highly prestigious American law school, BC Law graduates are highly recruited in New England.
Over the past several years BC Law graduates have received post-graduate fellowships in the public interest field, including the Skadden Fellowship, the Soros Justice Fellowship, and the NAPIL Equal Justice Works Fellowship. The Law School was listed by NAPIL as among the top 25 law schools for commitment to loan repayment assistance and easing student debt. BC Law currently provides over $260,000 each year in loan repayment assistance to graduates pursuing public interest careers, an increase of over 50% from prior years. BC Law has also consistently been ranked in the top five by US News in Most Collegial Law Schools, and the friendly atmosphere has led Vault.com to name it the Disneyland of law schools. In 2007, the National Law Journal ranked BC Law in the top 15 schools based on law schools with the highest percentage of graduates hired by the top American law firms.[5]
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Although provisions for a law school were included in the original charter for Boston College, ratified by the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1863, Boston College Law School was formally organized in the 1920s and opened its doors on September 26, 1929. It was accredited by the American Bar Association in 1932 and the Association of American Law Schools in 1937. Originally located in the Lawyer's Building opposite the Massachusetts State House in central Boston, it moved to the main Boston College campus in 1954 and to its present 40-acre (160,000 m2) campus, the home of the former Newton College of the Sacred Heart, in 1975.
Due to Boston College student placement in the top law firms in the country, the 2010 Princeton Review rankings place Boston College in the number 7 position for "Best Career Prospects." Boston College is also ranked number 5 for "Professors Rock (Legally Speaking)."[6]
The U.S. News and World Report 2012 Law School Rankings placed Boston College Law School 27th (tied with William & Mary Law School and University of Iowa) in the country.[7] In 2011, BC Law's legal writing program ranked 9th in the nation[8] and its tax program 23rd.[9]
Regarding recruiting at the top law firms in the country, the National Law Journal ranked BC Law in the top 15 law schools because of the large number of graduates the school places in the top American law firms. Harvard was the only other Boston school that placed in the top 20 for recruiting.[5]
In addition to J.D., M.A. and Ph.D. programs, Boston College Law School offers joint degrees with BC's Carroll School of Management (J.D./M.B.A.), Graduate School of Social Work (J.D./M.S.W.) and Lynch School of Education (J.D./M.Ed.). Joint degrees in the humanities, fine arts, natural sciences and social sciences are offered with BC's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
BC Law offers several programs abroad including the Semester in London Program and the Semester in The Hague Program with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The law school also has exchange programs with Bucerius Law School, the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, and numerous other law faculties throughout the world.[10]
Speakers also frequently attend the law school. Past speakers have included supreme court justices, federal appellate court judges and famous scholars of law.
In a new building opened in 1996, the Law Library is located on the Boston College Law School campus in[Newton, and contains approximately 500,000 volumes covering all major areas of American law and primary legal materials from the federal government, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United Nations, and the European Union. The library also features a substantial treatise and periodical collection and a growing collection of international and comparative law material. The library's Coquillette Rare Book Room houses works from the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries, including works by and about Saint Thomas More.
Boston College Law School maintains six student-run publications. The Boston College Law Review is the oldest scholarly publication at the law school. The Boston College International & Comparative Law Review is one of approximately 30 law reviews in the United States that focus on international legal issues. The Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review is the nation's second oldest law review dedicated solely to environmental law and considered one of the most prestigious environmental law reviews in the country. The Third World Law Journal is a unique legal periodical that fills the need for a progressive, alternative legal perspective on issues both within the United States and in the developing world.
The Uniform Commercial Code Reporter-Digest is the only student-written publication at Boston College Law School published by a private corporation.[11]
Boston College is also the first law school to implement a completely online publication, the Intellectual Property and Technology Forum, providing research articles on issues of copyright, trademark and patent law.[12]
The total enrollment for BC Law is 794 students. 20% of the student population are students of color and 2% of the population are international students. 68% of the law students receive grant assistance to pay for their education.
The 2011 entering class was composed of 268 students (from 5,685 applicants) - it had a median LSAT score of 166 and a median GPA of 3.66. There were 18 students with graduate degrees.
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