We at Rutgers Law School seek to open many doors for our students. We believe that law students should be prepared to represent and advise their clients, as well as to serve in many private and governmental roles, in a diverse and increasingly global society.
To prepare our students for practice we offer them opportunities to experience and learn from law in action as well as law in books. We invite students to study how law affects and can promote social justice for diverse groups, including those historically disadvantaged. We help our students explore historical, economic, comparative, philosophical and other multidisciplinary perspectives on how law functions and should function. We encourage students to help represent those who would not otherwise have access to legal representation.
Within these broader goals, we expect our graduates, at a minimum, to achieve competence in:
- Knowing and understanding both substantive and procedural law, as taught in the required curriculum and elective courses;
- Interpreting and applying law from judicial, legislative, and administrative sources;
- Exercising proper professional and ethical responsibilities to clients and the legal system;
- Performing legal analysis and reasoning;
- Conducting legal research;
- Engaging in legal problem-solving;
- Applying written and oral communication skills in legal contexts;
- Using factual materials in legal contexts;
- Learning to work with others in legal contexts, including such skills as interviewing clients, counseling clients, serving on attorney teams, preparing witnesses, negotiating with adversaries, engaging in alternative dispute resolution, and persuading judicial and other decision-makers.