Juris Doctor (JD) - College of Law

Juris Doctor (JD)

A top value law school to prepare you for an exceptional future

Ready to excel in legal and related professions? At The University of Tulsa College of Law, you can earn your Juris Doctor in a dynamic program with exceptional job placement rates at a lower cost! You’ll get a robust learning experience from an outstanding faculty of scholars, professionals, and mentors. And you’ll earn your degree at law school that’s ranked among the best values, not only in Oklahoma, but also across the United States!

90.6% employment

full-time, long-term, bar license-required or JD advantage positions within 10 months of graduation

89.74% bar passage rate

A- best law school building (preLaw 2022)

Engaging curriculum

From Corporate and Commercial to Sustainable Energy and Natural Resources Law, you’ll enjoy the benefit of strong curricular offerings at TU Law. You can tailor your academic program to enhance your professional interests and your career goals.

Internship and externship opportunities

At TU Law, you will have access to internship and externship opportunities in a broad range of civil and criminal litigation as well as transactional law. Our externship program, for example, includes over 150 partner organizations from coast to coast. As a result, during your 2L and 3L years you will be able to earn academic credit while gaining practical experience working with clients.

Tuition value and scholarships

We understand the importance of providing an excellent education at an affordable cost. At $27,686 a year, TU Law offers you a top-notch private legal education for a cost that is under the national average for both public and private law schools nationwide. Did you know the majority of our students receive scholarships? Learn more about financial aid opportunities here.

  • Program Learning Outcomes

    The Faculty of the College of Law has adopted the following student learning outcomes for the J.D. program and expects its graduates to demonstrate competency in each through completion of required courses and programs in the J.D. curriculum:

    I. Graduates will demonstrate knowledge of substantive and procedural law necessary for effective and responsible participation in the legal profession and related professions and industries by:

    A. Understanding various sources of law and legal authority, their relative priority, and how they interact;

    B. Demonstrating ability to identify, describe, and apply fundamental rules of law; and

    C. Understanding the relationship and interaction between substantive and procedural law.

    II. Graduates will demonstrate competency in legal analysis, reasoning, and problem solving by:

    A. Demonstrating capacity to identify issues relevant to resolving legal questions and differentiate issues based on their importance;

    B. Demonstrating ability to research applicable legal authority;

    C. Demonstrating capacity to resolve legal problems thoroughly and methodically by:

          1. Critically reading applicable authority;
          2. Synthesizing the relevant rules of law into a logical framework for analysis;
          3. Applying the identified rules to the facts, including evaluating potential counterarguments; and
          4. When appropriate, analogizing the facts to or distinguishing the facts from those of precedent cases; and

    D. Demonstrating ability to take multiple or opposing perspectives and assess the strongest arguments from each perspective.

    III. Graduates will demonstrate competency in written and oral communication with members of the legal and related professions as well as the public by:

    A. Demonstrating ability to write legal documents that are clear, concise, well-reasoned, organized, professional in tone, appropriate to the audience and circumstances, and, if appropriate, contain proper citation to authority;

    B. Demonstrating ability to effectively advocate for a position, both orally and in writing, taking into account the standpoint of the recipient of the communication and the context in which it is made.

    IV. Graduates will demonstrate competency in the professional skills lawyers need to meet their responsibilities by:

    A. Demonstrating capacity to improve performance based on feedback;

    B. Demonstrating ability to advise a client regarding available options, including advantages and disadvantages of each option;

    C. Demonstrating ability to work collaboratively;

    D. Demonstrating ability to identify and elicit relevant facts that support or undermine a legal argument; and

    E. Demonstrating ability to negotiate effectively on behalf of a client.

    V. Graduates will demonstrate competency in professionalism and ethics by:

    A. Demonstrating ability to identify and analyze ethical issues raised by various aspects of the attorney-client relationship;

    B. Demonstrating ability to identify and analyze attorneys’ conflicts of interest;

    C. Demonstrating ability to identify and analyze ethical issues in relation to the attorney’s duties toward tribunals, opposing parties and counsel, unrepresented persons, or the public; and

    D. Demonstrating understanding of how ethical standards are enforced.