The Dean's Course is a year-long course intended to serve as an introduction to legal education and the legal profession. The Course has three main objectives: 1) to provide you with some context for the 1L curriculum by exposing you to legal theory and areas of law not well represented in your 1st year classes; 2) to introduce you to members of the Duke Law faculty and their areas of scholarship and interest; and, 3) to help you start the process of considering what kind of lawyer you wish to be, what the options are, and how one’s personal values can be knitted to a career in the law.

The Dean's Course will consist of eight lectures, with four held in the fall and four in the spring semesters. Following each lecture, students meet with their LEAD groups to discuss the issues raised in the course. The Dean's Course is a credited academic course, worth 0.5 credits. It is graded on a credit/no credit basis. You must attend the lectures and the follow-up discussions in order to receive credit for the course.

Fall Semester

The first three lectures of the Dean's Course were delivered during LEAD Week.  Dean David F. Levi taught two of those classes, with the first focusing on how to be a successful law student at Duke and the second focusing on how to build a successful career in law.  Professors Maggie Lemos and Ernie Young taught a third class during LEAD Week that provided students with an overview of the judiciary system and the different types of law students would encounter as a law student and lawyer.  The last lecture of the fall semester featured Professor Guy Charles, who spoke about campaign and election law in anticipation of the November 2012 election.