Study

To earn credit for your SRWP, you must complete the registration form before the end of drop/add. At the end of the semester, you must complete the certification form. Both forms can be turned into the Registrar’s Office (Rm. 2007) or emailed to registrar_office@law.duke.edu. If you’ve completed both forms, there is no need to worry about any delays in the SRWP posting to your Advisement Report.

JD and JD-LLM students who need fewer than 12 credits in their final semester may request a waiver of the minimum course load requirement.  The Office of Academic Affairs may approve such a request for a student to enroll in as few as 10 credits upon review of the student’s progress toward graduation.  Students may submit their request to the Office of Academic Affairs via email during the drop/add portion of the registration period for their final semester.

No, only those Wintersession courses that are sufficiently simulation-based count for experiential learning credit. To see a list of which courses count, please use the “JD – experiential learning” search parameter under the drop-down list below “JD Course of Study” in the course browser.

Please note that, for the asynchronous courses offered as part of Wintersession 2021, they will not count as experiential learning credits.

In any given Duke Law course, students must be evaluated on one of the following grading bases:

1. Graded on the Law School’s numerical grading scale

or

2. Pass/fail, which the Law School calls credit/no credit. Note, the grading terminology for the 1L Foundations of Law courses is pass/low pass/fail.

The grading basis for each course is approved by the Curriculum Committee. Courses are approved as graded, credit/no credit, or both. The latter category is the only one that allows students to choose whether they would like to be evaluated with a grade or credit/no credit designation.

Students can look for the credit/no credit designation both in the course description on the Course Browser and in the course information provided in DukeHub.

Students are not allowed to take a course as credit/no credit if it is not approved as credit/no credit or “both” by the Curriculum Committee. In other words, students cannot take a course that is approved as graded-only on a credit/no credit basis.

At the supervising faculty member’s discretion, student work in the following courses or programs shall be either graded according to the Law School’s numerical grading scale or evaluated and recorded in credit/no credit terms:

1. independent study [see Rule 3-12(1)],
2. ad hoc seminars and research tutorials [see Rule 3-12(2) and Rule 3-12(3)],
3. capstone projects, and
4. domestic externships.

The University Registrar does not permit adjustments to the amount of credit after the close of the drop/add period. The amount of credit for a clinic is determined by the student and faculty supervisor together at the beginning of the semester, based on the case load that the student agrees to. Students who exceed the number of hours required for the amount of credit may count those additional hours as pro bono service.

Independent study is generally not permitted for students participating in Duke in DC or study abroad. Due to the intensive nature of project development for independent study, students should be in residence on-campus for the semester to have the full advantage of faculty guidance.

No. A student may not be enrolled in programs or courses at more than one school, absent an inter-institutional agreement between the schools. Duke Law School does not have an inter-institutional agreement with any DC-area law schools.

No. A research paper written for the Substantial Research and Writing Project must be supervised by a Duke Law faculty member.

• The ABA requires that a student’s educational achievement in field placements (externships/internships) be evaluated by a faculty member in order for the school to grant academic credit for the experience. Summer internship performance is evaluated by the employer/supervising attorney, and not by a Duke Law School faculty member. Therefore, we are unable to award academic credit for summer internships.
• The Office of Academic Affairs can provide a letter of explanation to employers, and offer an alternative arrangement that might be suitable for the employer and the student.

No, Duke Law School does not have an available summer term for JD students to enroll in independent study.

A one-unit course at the graduate/professional school level (500-level or higher), will count as three credits toward the 87-credit JD degree requirement or the 101-credit JD-LLM degree requirement.

Will the grade for the course be factored into my Law GPA?

Please refer to the bottom left corner of the Registration Portal for information about how to register for a course at Fuqua.

Registration information for the Graduate School and other professional schools is published by the Law School Registrar’s Office on the Registration Portal, along with a link to the non-law course permission form. The permission form must be signed by a member of the Office of Academic Affairs. Non-law courses must be of suitable academic rigor. Courses at the 500 level or higher are presumed to be suitably rigorous. Only courses above the 500 level (graduate/professional school level) may be applied as credit toward the JD or JD-LLM degree.

The Languages at Duke website has links to each department and program website, where you can find placement information for the individual language program(s). If you cannot easily find this information, call the main department number and ask for the number and/or email of the Director of Undergraduate Studies or Language Program Director or Coordinator, who should be able to assist you with placement. Please note that undergraduate courses may not count toward any graduation requirement, including the number of credits. Only courses about the 500 level (graduate/professional school level) may be applied as credit toward the JD or JD-LLM degree.

The posting of sample syllabi is a newly available feature of the Course Browser. Sample syllabi are posted at the discretion of the faculty member. Academic Affairs is working to get syllabi from as many instructors as possible.

No, except that to be eligible for Latin honors at graduation, 80% of your coursework must be in graded credits.

For the Class of 2021, all students will be granted a blanket allocation of 14 “graded” credits for Spring 2020, purposes of honors eligibility. Under this formulation, to meet the threshold for Latin honors, regular JD (including transfer) students need 27 graded credits of upper-level coursework (out of a total 56 upper-level credits); JD-LLM students need 37 graded credits in upper-level coursework (out of a total 70 upper-level credits); and all other dual-degree students need 17 graded credits in upper-level coursework (out of a total 44 upper-level credits) at the Law School. The determination for cutoffs for honors designations will remain unchanged under Rule 2-7.

All students in the Class of 2022 will be deemed to have earned 31 graded credits for their first-year coursework, regardless of election of a grade for Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing, for purposes of honors eligibility. The requirements for upper-level graded coursework and determination of cut-offs will remain the same as those articulated in Rule 2-7. For dual-degree students in the Class of 2022, who took Constitutional Law during the Fall 2020 semester, that course will count as graded credits for purposes of honors eligibility.

Yes.

No.

Yes, JD students are permitted to attend the Duke-Leiden summer institute. However, the credits earned at the summer institute will not be grounds for a waiver of the minimum course load requirement in a later semester.

No. The ABA does not permit the same course to count towards multiple graduation requirements (e.g., the same course cannot count for both the Ethics and Experiential requirements). If you take such a course, it will only count towards one of the requirements.

No

Yes, provided you concurrently enroll in an ethics course.

Yes. Absent Administrative Committee approval, you may not earn more than total 12 credits through clinics. If you wish to seek approval for additional credits, please contact your academic advisor. You are also limited to no more than eight credits in any one clinic, including advanced clinic enrollment. Please contact the clinic director with questions about advanced clinic enrollment and number of credits.

No. Admission to the NY Bar requires proof of “Skills Competency” via one of five “pathways.” In part because of the creation of the Professional Development Curriculum, JD students who entered law school after August 1, 2016 will satisfy the Skills Competency requirement through Pathway 1. Accordingly, students will only need to complete the six experiential credits required for their degree.

No. Because of substantial overlap in course material, you may only take one course that satisfies the ethics degree requirement. If there is a compelling reason why you should be permitted to take an additional ethics course, please contact your academic advisor. Note: this limitation does not apply to a one-credit course such as Law 775: Corporate Ethics, which cannot be used to satisfy the ethics graduation requirement.

Absent a special agreement with your clinic’s faculty and approval from Academic Affairs, an Advanced Clinic will not qualify.  ABA Standard 304 requires that clinics, among other things, “provide a classroom instructional component.” Because Advanced Clinics do not typically include a classroom instructional component, they cannot automatically count as experiential coursework. Students wishing to receive experiential credit should work with their clinic faculty to determine if their planned Advanced Clinic can qualify for experiential credit and, if so, to develop a plan for the requirement for a classroom component.