Required Curriculum

Students are required to track their own requirements for graduation. Students can track their Academic progress by logging into student.msu.edu and navigating to the Academic Progress tile.

• Professional Responsibility
• Bar Success Fundamentals*
• 6 credits in Experiential Courses¹
• A paper that satisfies the Upper-Level Writing Requirement²

After the first-year curriculum, students below a cumulative grade-point average of 2.50 must complete all the following courses:

• Business Enterprises
• Constitutional Law II
• Evidence
• Family Law: Marriage and Divorce
• Criminal Procedure: Investigation
• Directed Study – as approved by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

*A student who completed the first-year curriculum with a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.50 may apply to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for a waiver of this requirement. The student must submit the application prior to completing 60 credits.

Total Credits Required to Graduate: 88

¹ Experiential Learning Requirement
Each student must satisfactorily complete at least one or more experiential course(s) totaling at least six credit hours. According to ABA Standards, "(a)n experiential course must be a simulation course, a law clinic, or a field placement. To satisfy this requirement, a course must be primarily experiential in nature and must: (i) integrate doctrine, theory, skills, and legal ethics, and engage students in performance of one or more of the professional skills identified in [the Standards]; (ii) develop the concepts underlying the professional skills being taught; (iii) provide multiple opportunities for performance; and (iv) provide opportunities for self-evaluation."

² Upper-Level Writing Requirement (ULWR)
In view of the fact that lawyers and other members of the legal profession are commonly called upon to communicate their expertise in writing, an upper level writing requirement (the ULWR) assures that every student who graduates from this law school will have had the experience of researching, analyzing and writing about legal issues on a more sophisticated and in-depth level than is generally possible during the first year of law school.

The benefits of the ULWR are twofold. Each College student will not only acquire enhanced research, analytical and writing skills, but also will produce a paper that may be used as a writing sample for job interviews and/or that may improve the student's credentials if the paper is published in a law review or bar journal. Detailed information regarding the ULWR can be found in the MSU Law Student Handbook.

Students are required to track their own requirements for graduation. Students can track their Academic progress by logging into student.msu.edu and navigating to the Academic Progress tile.

First-Year Curriculum

All students are required to choose at least five (5) classes from the following core courses to complete the requirements for graduation:

• Administrative Law
• Basic Income Tax
• Business Enterprises
• Conflict of Laws
• Constitutional Law II
• Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
• Criminal Procedure: Investigation
• Evidence
• Remedies
• Sales and Leases
• Sales and Secured Transactions
• Secured Transactions
• Secured Transactions and Practice
• Torts II
• Trusts and Estates

A student who has completed the first year with a GPA of 3.50 or above, for good cause, may apply to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for a waiver of this requirement. The student must submit the application prior to completing 60 credits.

In addition to the five core courses, the following are also required for graduation:

• Professional Responsibility or Lawyer Ethics and Regulation in a Technology-Driven World
• Upper-Level Writing Requirement
• Experiential Learning Requirement

Total Credits Required to Graduate: 88