School of Law

Main Content

The Southern Illinois University School of Law has established a positive, individualized learning environment that allows students to develop the skills necessary to compete in today’s legal market. The low student/faculty ratio (13- to- 1) illustrates the School’s commitment to personal education. Students receive the very best in instruction from faculty drawn from distinguished practice and academic settings. The curriculum balances traditional legal education with practical skills training to produce an attorney who understands the law and how to apply it in real-world situations.

The Juris Doctor (JD) degree program is a three-year, full-time day program. The school also offers a Two-Year Honors scheduling option for eligible students. Students must indicate their interest in this option at the time of their application to law school.

In the first year, students take fundamental law courses as well as Lawyering Skills classes that combine legal research and writing, interviewing, counseling, negotiation and oral advocacy. All first-year students take a Professionalism and the Law class. The School has been recognized by the Illinois Supreme Court and the American Bar Association for its leadership in the development of professionalism programs.

SIU is one of the few law schools in the country that guarantee its JD students an opportunity to participate in a legal clinic or field placement experience. Students have a variety of experiential learning and extracurricular opportunities including legal clinics, in which they assist actual clients under the supervision of licensed attorneys; externships; moot court; pro bono activities; study abroad; writing and editing for the Southern Illinois University Law Journal or the Journal of Legal Medicine; and more than twenty student organizations.

Professionals who have expertise in the intersection of information systems and the law staff the Law Library and teach in the Lawyering Skills program.

The School offers specializations in Intellectual Property, Health Law and Policy, International and Immigration Law, Business and Transactional Law, Litigation and Dispute Resolution, and Public Interest Law. Students who complete the requirements for these specializations earn a transcript notation and certificate that will allow them to demonstrate to potential employers their genuine interest and growing expertise in the field.

The School also offers interdisciplinary opportunities including seven joint degree programs in Accountancy (MACC), Social Work (MSW), Public Administration (MPA), Educational Administration (M.S.Ed), Business Administration (MBA), Electrical Computer Engineering (ECE), Political Science (Ph.D.) and Medicine (MD). The School’s joint JD/MD program, offered in conjunction with the SIU School of Medicine, is one of only a few concurrent law/medicine programs available in the country.

The relationship between the schools of law and medicine offers law students unique opportunities for collaborative learning through the Center for Health Law and Policy.

The School is an accredited provider of continuing legal education programming for Illinois attorneys.
Interested students can contact the Office of Admissions by email at lawadmit@siu.edu, by phone at 800/739-9187, or by mail at SIU School of Law, 1150 Douglas Drive, Carbondale, Illinois 62901. Students are also encouraged to visit the School of Law’s website at law.siu.edu.

With advance notice, students and parents can request a tour, a meeting with law school staff, and an opportunity to sit in on a current law school class (when class is in session).

The School of Law is fully accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.

School of Law

Camille Davidson, Dean

School Website