Although George Mason offers a number of structured specialization options, students are not required to specialize in their legal studies. Many students enter law school without a clearly defined area of interest. Those students may pursue a general course of study, choosing electives as their interests develop.
Note: The faculty and administration increased the number of credit hours required for graduation from 84 to 89 effective with the class entering in the fall of 2006.
All George Mason law students, whether pursuing a specialty track or the General Law Program, are required to satisfactorily complete 89 credit hours for graduation. Forty of those credit hours are in general courses; the remaining credit hours are in elective courses. In addition, students must complete the School of Law's writing requirement.
For information on J.D. Course Requirements, see the following pages, based on the year entering George Mason School of Law: Fall 2007 and Later | Fall 2006 | Fall 2004 or 2005
For information on individual courses, see Course Descriptions.
Students attending George Mason University School of Law may pursue full-time day study or part-time evening study. Unlike many other law school programs, the day and evening programs stand on equal footing, as the courses taught in the day and evening divisions are identical.
For more information, see A Choice of Programs: Day and Evening Programs.
The practice of law grows more segmented as the body of law grows in both volume and complexity. Our specialization options ensure that our graduates can demonstrate depth as well as breadth in their legal education and that they are prepared for practice in the 21st century.
As the newest of the School of Law's specialties, the Technology Law Program combines course work in the fields of technology law, intellectual property law, and business law. It provides students with skills necessary to succeed in today's rapidly-changing legal environment. Distinguished professors and practitioners offer courses on subjects such as telecommunications policy, cybercrime, intellectual property protection, and venture capital formation. In addition to the 42 credit hours in required General Law Program courses, students pursuing the Technology Law Program will take 15 credit hours of required courses in business and intellectual property law, 8 credit hours of technology law electives, 6 credit hours of business law or intellectual property law electives, and the remaining credit hours in electives.
For more information, see Technology Law Program.
Through our specialty law tracks, students may acquire a sophisticated understanding of particular substantive areas of the law usually gained only after years of practice or through advanced legal study. Students pursuing a specialty track will be required to take 24 to 31 credit hours of the 89 total credit hours required for graduation in the area of specialization. Students in track programs are also required to write a thesis.
Students may elect to pursue one of the following specialty tracks at the end of their first year of study:
For more information, see Law Tracks.
For students who would like greater freedom in their course selection while also gaining the benefits of some degree of specialization, George Mason offers specialization sequences listed below. To complete a sequence, a student must earn from 14 to 16 credit hours in a particular area.
For more information, see Law Sequences.
George Mason University School of Law offers an intensive three-year legal writing program to prepare its students for the practical demands in the practice of law. In the first year, students are introduced to both enacted law and common law, learn a variety of research methodologies using both print and electronic database resources, learn the art of analyzing legal concepts, and the practical skills of presenting this research and analysis in a coherent, organized, and logical written product. Students begin writing objective legal memoranda in the first semester, and then progress to the art of persuasive writing through a trial level problem, where students are required to write both pre-trial pleadings and trial memoranda. At the end of the second semester, students engage in oral argument before local practitioners and judges. In the third semester, students continue developing and refining their research, analytical, and writing skills by working through an appellate problem at the federal appellate level. Students research and prepare two complete appellate briefs according to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure – one for the Appellant and one for the Appellee – and then engage in oral argument before legal practitioners. In the fourth semester, students are divided into law firms and counsel the same client through a variety of simulated circumstances requiring different types of legal drafting, from simple contracts governing the behavior of the client and others, to drafting legislation and preparing a will. Students also engage in a settlement negotiation with their colleagues and finalize the terms of the settlement reached into a settlement agreement for their client.
The LRWA Program at George Mason also requires at least two additional writing courses beyond the first two years. For those students in the general law track, the additional writing requirement can be satisfied by taking either two 400- or 600-level seminar courses or one 400-/600-level seminar and one “Writing” course (designated by a (W) following the title of the course). Students in the specialty track programs use their theses and other required courses to fulfill the upper-level writing requirements.
View the list of current Writing Fellows.
In 1996, the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar drafted a proposal identifying the basic areas of knowledge that are important to a sophisticated legal education and to the development of a competent attorney. Two are of particular interest to us:
For the past 12 years, George Mason has integrated these disciplines into our law and economics-oriented curriculum. Our curriculum introduces students to legal methods along with economic and quantitative tools, stressing the application of the nonlegal methods in legal contexts. We reinforce this strategy in other courses at the School of Law that are taught by professors of law who are also experts in some areas of economics and quantitative methods.
George Mason is proud of the academic centers located at the School of Law. Through these centers, we bring extraordinary talent into our law school and enhance our existing programs. These centers also create a strong network in various areas of law that greatly benefits our students as they explore the multitude of career opportunities available to them.
National Center for Technology and Law
The National Center for Technology and Law (NCTL), established in 1999, seeks to bridge the gap between rapidly changing technologies and the laws that frequently hold them back by serving as a neutral forum in which business and government leaders can debate and develop technology policy proposals. The NCTL carries out its work in a number of ways, including sponsoring a distinguished speaker series and hosting policy conferences on current issues in information technology and biotechnology policy.
Founded in 1974, the Law & Economics Center (LEC) is a vital component of George Mason University School of Law. The LEC has developed an international reputation for its outstanding educational institutes, seminars, and conferences for federal and state court judges.
Foreign Exchange Program In Law And Economics
Through a newly established exchange program with the University of Hamburg's Erasmus Programme in Law and Economics, George Mason law students interested in the economic effects of legal rules are invited to study for one, two, or three terms at the University of Hamburg in Germany. Likewise, program students from the University of Hamburg may study law from the perspective of economic analysis at George Mason. This program is for students with a solid background in law and economics interested in the interdisciplinary study of both areas.
