Academics

Part-time J.D. Program

You don’t have to quit your day job to earn your J.D. Santa Clara Law’s part-time program gives you all the benefits of our full-time program—our excellent location in Silicon Valley, our outstanding faculty mentors, our extensive clinical and professional opportunities, and our supportive staff—with the added benefit of a diverse and collegial part-time student community.

 

Who should attend?
Santa Clara Law’s part-time program attracts some of the best and brightest professionals from our outstanding location in the world business center of Silicon Valley. You will share your educational experience with Ph.D.’s from MIT, patent agents from leading law firms, and other working professionals who are employed at major companies and firms in Silicon Valley and/or hold other advanced degrees. Our program also attracts young recent graduates and others who are highly motivated to pursue a legal education in a cost-effective way.

 

Course of study
Most part-time students complete the requirements for the J.D. in 4 years. Courses are taught in the evenings, Monday through Thursday, from approximately 6-8:45p.m.

 

YEAR OF STUDY NUMBER OF UNITS COURSES
FIRST YEAR 21 (for entire year) Criminal Law (3 units), Contracts (6 units), Torts (4 units), Property (4 units), and Legal Analysis,Research, and Writing (4 units)
SECOND YEAR 8-11 (each semester) Civil Procedure (6 units), Constitutional Law I (3 units),
Constitutional Law II (3 units), and Advocacy (3 units)
THIRD YEAR 8-11 (each semester) Evidence (4 units), Legal Profession (3 units)
(may be taken any time during the third or fourth year)
FOURTH YEAR 8-11 (each semester)

 

Other Requirements

Supervised Analytical Writing Requirement. This requirement may be satisfied by a seminar where a research paper is the basis for evaluation, Law Review, Computer & High Tech Law Journal, or supervised research.

 

Suggested Upper Division Curriculum

Students are encouraged to consider taking the following courses:

 

  • Business Organizations Tested on the California Bar Examination and a prerequisite to a number of upper division courses.
  • Wills and Trusts Tested on the California Bar Examination, and a prerequisite to a number of upper division courses, such as Estate Planning and Will Drafting.
  • Federal Personal Income Tax General course. Prerequisite to a number of advanced tax and business courses. If not taken during the second year, registration conflicts can develop.
  • Remedies General course. Tested on California Bar Examination.
  • Community Property Important for persons interested in property or estate planning. Tested on California Bar Examination.
  • Criminal Procedure Focus on constitutional rights of accused. Needed for criminal law clinic. Tested on California Bar Examination.

 

Summer School
After the first year, many part-time students take one or two classes during the summer. This often allows them to reduce their course load to 3 nights a week during the regular school year.

 

Class Size
Each part-time entering class has about 60 to 70 students in the evening section. There are two evening sections of Legal Analysis, Research and Writing of about 30 to 35 students each.

 

Faculty
The majority of our part-time first-year courses are taught by full-time, tenured (or tenure track) members of our outstanding faculty.

 

Policies
There are two key policies for part-time students: Attendance and Employment .

 

We encourage you to learn more about our part-time program. If you'd like to schedule a visit or have questions about our program, please contact our admissions office.


 

More Information

 

Part-time JD program testimonials