Northeastern University School of Law

Northeastern University School of Law
Established	1898
Type	Private
Endowment	$8,905,474 in 2003[1]
Dean	Emily Spieler
Students	600
Location	Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Campus	Urban
Website	www.northeastern.edu/law/

Northeastern University School of Law is a law school in Boston, Massachusetts. From the time of its founding in 1898, the law school's mission has focused on addressing the needs of students and of society.

The law school flourished throughout the early 20th century, but limited resources forced the school to close in 1956. It reopened in 1968 organized around a cooperative education program, which stressed practical experience in legal settings as the best way to learn the art and craft of lawyering. This experience-based approach to legal education is increasingly seen as the best way to educate lawyers.^[2]

The school has a positive reputation for its graduates' ability to perform and handle significant legal work early in their career. Due to its practice-based approach to legal education, the school is able to select from a pool of highly qualified applicants. For the class of 2014, the school received 3,674 applications and enrolled 218 students with a median LSAT score of 162 and a median GPA of 3.48.^[3] More than half of the student body are women and more than 25 percent are minorities.

In recent years, the school has been on the rise. From 2011 to 2012, Northeastern leapt up 15 spots in the Best Law School Rankings of U.S. News and World Report.^[4] In 2011, the school's ranking had already climbed 8 spots from its position in 2010.^[5] In total, Northeastern's ranking improved by 23 spots from 2010 to 2012 - a feat unmatched by any other law school in the nation.^[6]

Cooperative education program

The School of Law offers a Cooperative Legal Education Program. This program provides all students with a full year of hands-on legal experience gained through four, three-month internships in law offices, judge’s chambers and other organizations throughout the world. More than 800 employers participate in the School of Law's program. By completing work placements with four different legal employers, students have the opportunity to experience the actual practice of law and to integrate practical experience with a theoretical foundation of in-depth classroom study. On average, 40 percent of Northeastern law students accept post-graduate employment with one of their former co-op employers.

Other notable features

The School of Law is recognized for its emphasis on public interest aspirations—it is currently ranked the eleventh best public interest law school in the country in the Winter 2011 edition of National Jurist and preLaw Magazine, after CUNY, Yale, Rutgers-Newark, Stanford, Berkeley, Arizona State University, University of Maryland, Loyola Los Angeles, Lewis and Clark, and Ohio State University. The 2010 edition of The Princeton Review's book, “The Best 172 Law Schools,” ranks Northeastern #2 among all the law schools for both providing the “best environment” for minority students and for having the “most liberal” students. [4].

All students are required to complete a public interest co-op, and many students participate in the school's clinics and institutes, which are dedicated to challenging existing boundaries of law in pursuit of economic and social justice. Graduates of the School of Law enter public interest careers at a rate three to five times the national average for all law school graduates. Those who enter private practice also hold the school's social justice values in high esteem, and can be found performing a wide range of pro bono work.

The law school publishes the magazine, Northeastern Law Magazine.

Alumni

• Margot Botsford, Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
• Francis J. Quirico, Justice (deceased), Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
• Nonnie S. Burnes, Insurance Commissioner, Massachusetts
• Mary L. Bonauto, Civil Rights Project Director, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders; lead counsel in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
• Martha Davis, feminist, human rights activist, and author of Brutal Need. Davis is a current faculty member.
• Martín Espada, poet
• Dana Fabe, Justice, Alaska Supreme Court
• Janet Bond Arterton, Judge on the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut
• Peter Franchot, Comptroller of Maryland
• Courtney Hunt, Best Picture Academy Award-nominated film director/screenwriter in 2009 for Frozen River
• Sharon McPhail, candidate for mayor of Detroit
• Delissa A. Ridgway, Judge, U.S. Court of International Trade
• Rishi Reddi, short story writer
• Victoria A. Roberts, Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
• Dorothy Samuels, New York Times editorialist
• Judith A. Scott, General Counsel, Service Employees International Union SEIU
• Urvashi Vaid, LGBT rights activist
• Leslie Winner, North Carolina state senator and foundation head
• Robin Kniech, Denver City Counsel Woman

References

1. ^ NUSL Alumni/ae: Giving Back- Giving Societies
2. ^ Individual Publication Titles: Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ [2]
5. ^ [3]
6. ^ http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-rankings/page+3

External links

• Northeastern University School of Law
• Northeastern University Law Journal
• The Emma Jean Lang Avery papers, ca. 1916-1931 are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA.
• The Samuel H. Becker papers, 1925-1962 are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA.