Penn Law offers a full-time program leading to the JD, the first professional degree in Law. Applicants have completed their undergraduate degrees and, oftentimes, advanced degrees in a broad array of disciplines; many have work experience prior to attending law school. On occasion, Penn Law has admitted international students who hold a law degree from outside the United States but who want to earn a JD degree in the United States. Penn Law also accepts a select group of Penn undergraduates who submatriculate, combining their bachelor's degrees and their JDs.
Penn Law's program of legal education, combining its rich, interdisciplinary curriculum, varied co-curricular activities, and pro bono responsibilities, prepares its students for admission to the bar and to serve as effective, ethical, and responsible members of the legal profession. Each student will be able to do the following:
- Demonstrate a core knowledge and understanding of substantive and procedural law in a number of different subject areas;
- Engage in legal analysis and reasoning, conduct efficient and effective legal research, apply problem solving skills, and present findings, analyses, and recommendations efficiently and effectively in both written and oral communication;
- Work collaboratively;
- Demonstrate an understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of law and the contributions and benefits to legal analysis and problem solving that other disciplines can make;
- Exercise proper professional judgment and fulfill ethical responsibilities to clients, the profession, and society in general; and
- Utilize a range of professional skills that facilitate active, competent and ethical participation in the legal profession.