The University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law (also known as UDC Law) is the District of Columbia's public law school located near the Van Ness - UDC Metro station in Washington, D.C.
According to UDC Law's 2017 ABA-required disclosures, 78.35% of the Class of 2016 obtained JD-required or advantage employment nine months after graduation.
Video David A. Clarke School of Law
History
UDC Law was established as the District of Columbia School of Law after Antioch University decided to close its law school. The Antioch School of Law was a Washington, D.C. school established in 1972 by Jean Camper Cahn and Edgar S. Cahn, a married interracial couple dedicated to improving legal services for poor people.
Eager to retain the Antioch School of Law's mission, curriculum, clinical programs, and personnel for the benefit of the city, in 1986 Antioch School of Law students, alumni and local legal and civic leaders mounted a successful grassroots campaign to persuade the Council of the District of Columbia to pass legislation that re-established the school as the District of Columbia School of Law (DCSL). The Council of the District of Columbia later passed legislation merging the School of Law with the University of the District of Columbia in 1996. In 1998 President Clinton signed legislation renaming the School after former D.C. Council Chair David A. Clarke, a civil rights leader, former Chair of the Council of the District of Columbia and long-time advocate for the law school and its mission.
The District of Columbia School of Law was awarded provisional accreditation by the American Bar Association in 1991, while the David A. Clarke School of Law was awarded provisional accreditation shortly after its renaming in 1998. It was awarded full accreditation by a unanimous vote of the ABA House of Delegates on August 8, 2005.
Mission
The David A. Clarke School of Law has carried on the original mission of The Antioch School of Law. UDC Law's mission is:
- to recruit and enroll students from groups underrepresented at the bar,
- provide a well-rounded theoretical and practical legal education that will enable students to be effective and ethical advocates, and
- to represent the legal needs of low-income residents through the school's legal clinics.
Maps David A. Clarke School of Law
Academics
Curriculum
UDC Law requires more hands-on work in a clinical setting - on real cases on behalf of low-income people and the public interest - than any other U.S. law school. The school requires full-time first year students to take courses on Civil Procedure, Contracts, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Law & Justice, Lawyering Process, and Torts. Upper-division full-time students are required to take clinical courses and courses on Constitutional Law, Evidence, Moot Court, Professional Responsibility, and Property.
Degrees offered
UDC Law students can earn their J.D. in three years as full-time students or in four years as part-time students. The school also offers a two-year LL.M. program with concentrations in Clinical Education, Social Justice, and Systems Change.
Faculty
The school had 28 full-time faculty and three part-time/visiting faculty, including Antioch founder Edgar S. Cahn, as of Spring 2018.
Experiential learning
Each first-year UDC Law student provides a minimum of 40 hours of community service with a DC non-profit or government agency as part of the Law and Justice course. After completion of the first year, all UDC Law students are eligible for a paid Summer Public Interest Fellowship. UDC Law also has an Externship Program, allowing students to earn academic credit for closely supervised law-related work done in conjunction with the School of Law's Externship Course. In addition, UDC Law has a service-learning program that facilitates law student, staff and faculty service at family detention centers in Texas and elsewhere.
However, the heart of UDC Law's experiential program are its legal clinics, and all upper-division students to take two clinical classes.
The school offers the following clinics:
- Community Development Clinic
- Criminal Law Clinic (with DC Law Students in Court, located in the UDC Law building)
- Whistleblower Protection Clinic - at the Government Accountability Project
- General Practice Law Clinic
- Housing & Consumer Law Clinic
- Immigration & Human Rights Clinic
- Juvenile & Special Education Law Clinic
- Legislation Clinic
- Low-Income Taxpayers Clinic
U.S. News & World Report ranked UDC Law 6th for clinical training in its 2017 ranking of ABA-accredited law schools.
Student life
UDC Law enrolled 366 students for the 2012-2013 academic year including 330 students pursuing a J.D. 57.3% of UDC Law's JD student were enrolled full-time. 51.8% of J.D. students were racial minorities and 57.9% were female.
UDC Law students can participate in more than 30 student organizations, reflecting a variety of legal and social justice interests.
Admissions
UDC Law had a 39.6% acceptance rate in 2017 with the school receiving 548 applications. The school's matriculation rate was 38% with 82 of the 217 admits enrolling.
The median LSAT score for students enrolling in UDC in 2013 was 149 (40th percentile) and the median GPA was 3.07.
Employment
According to the school's official 2016 ABA-required disclosures, 78.3% of the Class of 2016 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required or JD-advantage employment nine months after graduation. 13 of the 97 were employed as judicial clerks. An equal number were either unemployed or their status was unknown.
Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland were the top employment locations for 2016 graduates.
Costs
The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at UDC Law for the 2017-2018 academic year is estimated to be $44,306 for full-time students who are D.C. residents and $56,320 for full-time students who are non-residents.
The average annual increase in tuition and fees for DC residents at UDC Law for the past five years has been 9%.
The Law School Transparency estimated debt-financed cost of attendance for three years is $159,633.
Ranking
UDC Law's rank was not published in the 2014 edition of U.S. News & World Report's annual law school rankings, indicating that the school ranked below the publication's cutoff.
Notable alumni
Federal government
- Jon Wellinghoff, former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Antioch 1975)
State government
- Thelma Buchholdt, former Member of the Alaska House of Representatives (1991)
- Keiffer Mitchell, former Member of the Maryland House of Delegates (1994)
- Penfield W. Tate III, former Member of the Colorado Senate and Colorado House of Representatives (Antioch, 1981)
Judiciary
- Thomas Kilbride, former Chief Justice and current Associate Justice, Supreme Court of Illinois (Antioch, 1981)
- Michael D. Wilson, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii (Antioch, 1979)
- Kevin M. Dougherty, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (Antioch, 1988)
- Joan A. Lenard (born 1952) is an American lawyer and United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
- Linda Christopher (Antioch, 1980), Associate Justice, New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division
- Anil Singh (Antioch, 1986), Associate Justice, N.Y. State Supreme Court Appellate Division, was the first Indian American NY State Supreme Court and Appellate Division Justice.
- Shana Frost Matini (1996) and Tyrona DeWitt (2002) are D.C. Superior Court Magistrate Judges.
Academia
- Andrea D. Lyon, Dean of Valparaiso University Law School (Antioch, 1976)
- Joyce McConnell, former Dean of West Virginia University College of Law (Antioch, 1982)
Arts
- Aviva Kempner, documentary filmmaker (Antioch, 1976)
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia