Juris Doctor Program

The Juris Doctor Program at The University of Tulsa College of Law consists of:

  1. 30 hours of required courses during the first year
  2. 18 – 21 hours of upper class required courses (36 to 42 for students with a GPA of 2.5 or lower at the time of their first academic status review)
  3. Nearly 100 elective courses that enable students to concentrate their coursework in six specialty areas: Native American Law; Energy, Environmental and Resources Law; International & Comparative Law; Health Law; Public Policy; and Entrepreneurial Law.

Basic Degree Requirements

To receive a Juris Doctor Degree from The University of Tulsa College of Law a student must:

  1. Complete 88 hours of coursework with passing grades no sooner than 24 months or no later than 84 months after commencing law school,
  2. Achieve an accumulative grade point average of at least 2.00,
  3. Fulfill all of the graduation requirements described below:

First Year Full-Time Courses

First SemesterSecond Semester
Civil Procedure I, 3 hours Civil Procedure II, 3 hours
Contracts, 4 hours Criminal Law, 4 hours
Torts, 4 hours Property, 4 hours
Dean's Seminar on the Legal Profession, 1 hour Constitutional Law, 3 hours
Legal Reasoning & Analysis, 2 hours Legal Writing I, 2 hours
Total: 14 hours Total: 16 hours

After First Year

Each student must take:


  • Professional Responsibility (3 hours)
  • Constitutional Law II (3 hours) --offered regularly only during the Fall
  • Evidence (4 hours) --offered regularly only during the Fall
  • Legal Writing II (2 hours) 
  • *Skills Course (2 or 3 hours)
  • **Transnational Course (2 or 3 hours)

Each student must fulfill upper class writing requirement by completing substantial research paper through:

    
    1. Seminar (2 or 3 hours) or
    2. Participation with one of our two law journals by:
        a. Earning a certificate of participation, and
        b. Writing a paper certified by a faculty member

Students with 2.5 GPA or lower at the time of their first Academic Status Review must take:

    
    BLOCK A (all courses required)
    Basic Corporate Law 
    Decedents' Estates & Trusts
    Criminal Procedure: Police Practices or Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
    Selling & Leasing of Goods
    Secured Transactions 
    
    BLOCK B (any two courses required)  
    Administrative Law  
    Advanced Torts  
    Agency & Partnership  
    Criminal Procedure: Police Practices or Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
    Family Law  
    Federal Taxation or Taxation of Estates, Trusts & Gifts

*Skills Courses: are those which provide substantial "instruction in professional skills related to the various responsibilities which lawyers are called upon to meet" and "engage students in skills performances that are assessed by the professor." At TU College of Law, the following courses qualify as skills courses when taught in the appropriate manner:

  • Advanced Competitions (if academic credit is received)
  • Advanced Torts (Professor Yasser's section only)
  • Advanced Trial Practice
  • Arbitration
  • Evidence Workshop
  • Boesche Legal Clinic: Immigrant Rights
  • Interviewing, Counseling and Negotiating
  • Introduction to Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Law Office Management
  • Mediation
  • Pretrial Practice
  • Real Estate Transactions
  • Social Security Disability Law
  • Sports Law
  • Texas Civil Procedure 
  • Trial Practice

**Transnational courses: At The University of Tulsa College of Law, the Transnational Course requirement may be satisfied by either participating in a study abroad program approved by the Vice Dean or passing one of the following courses:

  • Comparative Bioethics and the Law
  • Comparative Law
  • Family Law in the World Community
  • Federal Indian Law
  • Indian Gaming Law
  • International Business Transactions
  • International Energy and Natural Resources Law
  • International Environmental Law 
  • International Law 
  • International Trade Law 
  • Native American and Indigenous Rights
  • Tribal Economic Development
  • Tribal Government