Tulane, like most national law schools, has an open curriculum. Other than our required 3-credit Legal Profession course, there are no course requirements after the first year. We believe that students' freedom to design their own courses of study among approximately 150 course offerings each year is a valuable asset of Tulane Law School. However, the richness and diversity of our curriculum can present some difficult choices.
For course descriptions, click here.
This booklet (PDF) is designed to help JD students select courses during the second and third years of law school. It incorporates many suggestions made by faculty members over the years, but it was not written by the faculty, and some may disagree with some of its content. However useful you may find it, you should not let this booklet substitute for targeted advice from your professors, your student colleagues, Dean Griffin or Dean Netherton.
Our JD program must be pursued on a full-time basis. Students must take a minimum of 10 hours each semester to be enrolled full-time and may take up to 17 hours each semester without special permission. Because students need 88 hours to graduate, of which 29 are normally taken in the first year (31 prior to fall 2007), they must average almost 15 hours over each of the remaining four semesters to graduate in the required six full-time, non-summer, in-residence semesters. Some students go to summer school immediately after their first year because the extra hours enable them to carry a lighter load in later years, when job hunting and extracurricular activities may consume considerable time and energy. Students may take up to 12 credits in summer-school programs, of which a maximum of six can be earned in a non-Tulane program.
LLM and SJD students should refer to the LLM/SJD section of this web site and consult with their advisors when selecting courses.