Academic Program

Our program of legal education

Through our program of legal education, Seattle University School of Law seeks to educate and prepare our students for the competent and ethical practice of law in a global and highly complex society. We pay close attention to the rapidly changing profession and constantly review and revise our curriculum and broader program of legal education to ensure that our students graduate with both a concern for justice and the capacity to promote it.

We teach our students to analyze problems—to identify significant facts, analyze and synthesize precedent, interpret statutes, and construct policy arguments—and train them to write and speak with clarity and precision.

Through our broad curriculum, our outstanding faculty, our innovative programs, Seattle University School of Law produces outstanding lawyers who are leaders for a more just and humane world.

In the first intensive year, students concentrate on the highly traditional and prescribed basic courses, and on a yearlong legal writing and analysis course that is rated among the best in the nation. The upper-level, elective curriculum allows for choice, innovation, and diversity. Students experience the enriching blend of theoretical and practical course offerings and they may either select a broad, balanced program of study, or choose to specialize in a particular area of law ranging from commercial law to poverty law.