In order to receive the J.D. degree from the Boyd School of Law, a student must have been admitted to the law school, have completed at least 89 units of credit with an overall cumulative average of at least 2.30, and have completed all of the specific requirements for graduation, including the Community Service requirement, the Experiential Learning requirement, and the Capstone Writing requirement.
Experiential Learning Requirement
All students must complete six credits of experiential course work before graduation. Courses should be primarily experiential in nature; integrate doctrine, theory, professional skills, and legal ethics; and provide multiple opportunities for performance, self-evaluation, and evaluation by the professor. Categories of experiential courses include:
1. Any clinic or directed clinical practice
2. Any externship
3. Any simulation course, including trial advocacy, pre-trial advocacy, negotiation, or skills practicum connected to a doctrinal course.
The law school will provide a list of courses that meet the experiential requirement during registration each semester. Courses that are not in the above categories may still be designated experiential skills courses with the approval of the Associate Dean for Experiential Legal Education, in accordance with American Bar Association curricular standards.
Capstone Writing Requirement
In order to graduate, each student must complete the Capstone Writing Requirement. This requirement is satisfied by any analytical, intellectually rigorous law-related writing project that requires research, drafting, and revision in conjunction with a course, a faculty-supervised directed research project, or a Law Journal submission which is approved by the Law Journal Editorial Board and the Faculty Advisor.