Law school in the Kingdom of Sierra
| Legal education in the Kingdom of Sierra |
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| Exams and licensure |
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A law school in the Kingdom of Sierra is an educational institution where a student may obtain a professional education in law. Generally, a prerequisite to law school admission is having first obtained an undergraduate degree and taking the LEAT.
The majority of schools in the Kingdom of Sierra confer a Juris Doctor (J.D.), which is the equivalent of a professional doctorate. It is the minimum qualifying degree required to practice law in any jurisdiction within the Kingdom of Sierra, with few exceptions. Generally, Juris Doctor programs, if done full-time, are completed within three years (four years if done via evening classes).
Sierran educational institutions may also confer other degrees including the Master of Laws (L.L.M.) and the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D.). In addition to law degrees, law schools and other higher education institutions may offer programs for non-lawyer legal paraprofessionals such as paralegals and legal secretaries.
Law schools may be accredited by one of the four national bars of the Kingdom of Sierra (Federal Bar of Sierra, National Bar of Hawaii, National Bar of the Deseret, and the Law Society of Bajaría) or by a provincial, state, areal, or territorial bar association. Graduates who possess a degree from a nationally accredited school may practice law anywhere in the Kingdom of Sierra, whereas those who possess a degree from a subnational level are generally limited to the jurisdiction which accredited the school for a probationary period. Those who obtain a degree from an unaccredited school may be subject to additional requirements or may be outright denied admission into the bar in certain jurisdictions.
The majority of nationally accredited law schools in the Kingdom of Sierra are members of the Association of American Law Schools, an international organization consisting of Anglo-American law schools whose law degrees, credits, and hours are transferable or preferentially treated. The majority of Sierran law schools are also members of the Sierran Council of Law Schools, which promotes legal education and advocates for law school faculty, staff, and students.
Admission
In the Kingdom of Sierra, law schools generally require applicants obtain a bachelor's degree in any discipline (or a recognized equivalent), a satisfactory undergraduate grade point average (GPA), and a satisfactory score in the Legal Education Aptitude Test (LEAT). Some law schools may accept non-traditional paths to admission due to extenuating circumstances, personal hardship, or exceptional achievement. Additional factors which contribute towards admission assessment include letters of recommendation, personal essays, in-person interviews, extracurricular activities, and work experience. The standards and requirements for each law school vary significantly. There may be additional requirements for international applicants, especially those who are citizens from non-CAS states.
Most law schools offer financial aid to its students through the form of grants, scholarships, or loans. Public law schools are significantly subsidized by the federal and provincial governments, resulting in relatively cheaper or in some cases, free alternatives to private law schools. Certain jurisdictions have imposed tuition caps to prevent law schools from overcharging students. The average tuition for public law school students was around $15,000 per year, while the average tuition for private law school students was around $35,000 per year. Federal law prohibits the practice of conditional scholarships tied to the maintenance of a baseline grade point average.
Accreditation
The majority of provincial, state, areal, and territorial bar associations require prospective applicants obtain a law degree from an accredited law school in order to sit for the bar exam. Students who have taken a nationally accredited Juris Doctor program may sit for bar exam of any jurisdiction within the Kingdom of Sierra, and in some cases, certain other Anglo-American jurisdictions in countries such as Astoria, Brazoria, and Superior. Students who have taken a provincially accredited Juris Doctor program may be limited to sit only in the bar exam for the jurisdiction from which their program was accredited by and by jurisdictions which have voluntarily elected to recognize said program within their respective jurisdiction. All law students attending non-nationally accredited law schools must take and pass the baby bar after their first year of study. Those who have passed the baby bar may receive credit up to the date they took the exam. The baby bar requirement is waived for all law students attending nationally accredited schools and is completely optional. In the vast majority of jurisdictions, students who have failed the baby bar may retake the exam up to 2 or 3 times. After failing the 3rd or 4th time, they may only receive credit of the first year law student. Failure to pass a required baby exam and exhausting all subsequent retries does not adversely preclude one from sitting for a bar exam at a later date.
Schools which have been accredited by the relevant accreditation authority are subject to the standards and requirements dictated by said authority. Such standards encompass all aspects of law school programs including the minimum required hours of instruction and the content of study materials and curriculum. Additional standards which meet or exceed the relevant authority's own may be set by individual law schools.
Non-accredited law school graduates typically have lower bar passage rates compared to their accredited law school counterparts. As such, certain jurisdictions will not allow such students to sit for their bar exams without additional requirements, or in some cases, at all. Additional requirements may include taking additional courses offered by an accredited law school or having work experience commensurate to an accredited law school semester prior to sitting for a bar exam.
Curriculum
Law students are referred to as 1Ls, 2Ls, or 3Ls based on their year of study in traditional Juris Doctor programs. All law students, regardless of year, are formally known as J.D. candidates if they are participating in a Juris Doctor program. Those who are in accelerated 2-year Juris Doctor programs are referred to as 1/2Ls, and 2/3Ls. Night school and correspondence law school students who enroll in a 4-year program are referred to as 1NLs, 2NLs, 3NLs, and 4NLs or 1CLs, 2CLs, 3CLs, and 4CLs respectively. The curriculum for law schools vary from school to school and may also be dependent on whichever accreditation authority oversees the law school. The majority of law schools maintain a mandatory law curriculum for 1L students and their corresponding counterparts, which include emphasis on substantive law. This includes the following:
- Civil procedure
- Constitutional law
- Contracts and agreements
- Criminal law
- Property and real estate law
- Torts
- Legal research
- Legal writing
The aforementioned law courses and topics provide a basic overview of the law and do not represent the actual curriculum for 1Ls at all law schools. Various law schools may reserve certain courses such as constitutional law for 2Ls and others may include topics such as Evidence or Ethics for 1Ls. It is also common for nationally accredited schools to place emphasis on federal and national law over provincial, state, areal, and territorial law, especially for 1Ls.
Compared to 1Ls, 2Ls and 3Ls have greater freedom and flexibility in selecting their own course schedules. They may choose to pursue whichever path or concentration of the law relevant to their career choices. The vast majority of law schools provide upper-division courses which relate to specialized areas of substantive law including administrative law, admiralty law, corporate law, family law, immigration law, intellectual property law, international law, probate law, and tax law. Practical, hands-on application of the law is also encouraged, if not required, and can be obtained through practical training courses, workshops, law clinics, and summer internships or externships. Federal law requires that all legal internships comply with local employment laws, which includes a ban against unpaid internships for law students, unless voluntarily waived by the intern. Voluntary and pro bono work are expressly exempt from such legal requirements and must be explicitly distinguished from internships.
Grading
Grading varies from school to school. The vast majority of schools utilize the bell curve for grading purposes. Consequently, grades in Sierran law schools tend to be highly competitive. Traditionally, students are assigned ranks in accordance to their grades. Since the 2000s, a growing number of law school institutions have phased out this form of ranking in favor of more equitable grading systems which deemphasizes or removes rank through alternatives such as the narrative evaluation. Some schools mandate required letter grade distributions while others follow a median grading system wherein the median between B-plus and C-minus.
Clerkship
Law school rankings
Alternatives to law school
See also
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