Degree Requirements

COLLEGE OF LAW BASIC DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

To receive a Juris Doctorate Degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law a student must

  1. Complete 88 hours of course work with passing grades no sooner than 24 months or 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 Constitutional Law 3 hours
Torts 4 hours Criminal Law 4 hours
Legal Writing I 3 hours Property 4 hours
Legal Research 1 hour Legal Writing II 2 hours
Total: 15 hours Total: 16 hours

After First Year

Each student must take:

  • Professional Responsibility (3 hrs)
  • Constitutional Law II (3 hrs) --offered regularly only during the Fall
  • Evidence (4 hrs) --offered regularly only during the Fall
  • Skills* Course (2 or 3 hrs)
  • Perspective# Course (3 hrs)
  • Transnational+ Course (2 or 3 hrs)

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

(a) a seminar (2 or 3 hrs) or
(b) participation with one of our 3 law journals by

    1. earning a certificate of participation, and
    2. 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:

  • Basic Corporate Law (3 or 4 hrs)
  • Decedents Estates & Trusts (3 or 4 hrs)
  • Secured Transactions (3 hrs)
  • Selling & Leasing of Goods (3 hrs)

Plus any two of the following:

  • Administrative Law (3 hrs)
  • Advanced Torts (3 hrs)
  • Agency & Partnership (3 hrs)
  • Criminal Procedure: Police Practices (4 hrs)
  • Family Law (3 hrs)
  • One of the following tax courses
    • Federal Income Tax (3 hrs)
    • Taxation of Estates, Trusts & Gifts (3 hrs)

* 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 the University of Tulsa 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
  • Immigration Law Clinic  
  • Interviewing, Counseling and Negotiating
  • Introduction to Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Law Office Management
  • Legal Drafting
  • Mediation
  • Pretrial Practice
  • Real Estate Transactions
  • Social Enterprise & Economic Development Law Clinic
  • Social Security Disability Law
  • Sports Law
  • Texas Civil Procedure (Prof. Maye's section only)
  • Trial Practice

#Perspective courses: At the University of Tulsa College of Law, the Perspective Courses include:

  • Bioethics & the Law
  • Federal Indian Law
  • Gender & the Law
  • Indian Gaming Law
  • Jurisprudence
  • Law & Literature
  • Native American Natural Resources
  • Tribal Government

+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
  • European Union Law
  • Family Law in the World Community
  • International Business Transactions
  • International Energy and Natural Resources Law
  • International Environmental Law
  • International Law
  • Native American and Indigenous Rights