Overview

• The College of Law, which limits enrollment to ensure rich classroom discussions and more personalized attention from faculty members, enrolled 1,078 students in the 2009-2010 academic year.
  
  
• The law faculty consists of 59 full-time educators as well as adjuncts. All are lawyers who are scholars, international affairs experts or accomplished corporate, civil or public interest attorneys.
  
  
• Hands-on client experience is available to students through legal clinics that concentrate in areas such as immigration and asylum law, technology and intellectual property, death penalty, felony criminal appeals, misdemeanors, family and civil rights law, and advocacy on behalf of individuals charged with misdemeanor crimes and students with developmental disabilities.
  
  
• DePaul's College of Law has been progressive since its founding in 1912. It was one of the first law schools in Illinois to admit Jewish and women students and was among the first law schools to introduce such educational innovations as the study of negotiation techniques, courses in international criminal law and pre-trial courses in skills techniques.
  
  
• DePaul's law school has research centers and institutes that focus on issues such as health law, international human rights law, intellectual property, law and science, death penalty defense, animal law, international aviation law, family law, public interest law, international weapons control, Asian legal studies and dispute resolution.
  
  
• DePaul's International Human Rights Law Institute (IHRLI) is acclaimed worldwide for its documentation of war crimes and its global human rights training of judges and lawyers. The institute is actively engaged in human rights training, post-conflict justice and large-scale human rights documentation projects in virtually every region of the world, including the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Central America, the Caribbean and South America. The institute also operates the Center for Human Rights in the Americas, located in San José, Costa Rica. In 2008, Brig. Gen. Charles Tucker was named executive director of IHRLI. Tucker brings to the job more than 25 years of experience that includes progressing human rights recognition, especially in post-conflict situations.
  
  
• The Center for Justice in Capital Cases, which is directed by noted criminal defense attorney Andrea Lyon, gives students the opportunity to work on actual capital cases. In 2005, it became the new home of the Clarence Darrow Death Penalty Defense College. Working in partnership with the University of Michigan Law School, the death penalty college assists attorneys who are providing legal representation in pending capital cases.
  
  
• In keeping with its commitment to provide students and faculty with enriching educational and cultural experiences, the College of Law has a faculty and student exchange program with the University College Dublin in Ireland.
  
  

Distinctions

• Since 1992 the College of Law has been a member of the Order of the Coif, the nation's law school honorary society. Coif membership is nationally recognized as a mark of excellence in legal studies.
  
  
• DePaul's College of Law is ranked among the 100 best law schools in the nation by U.S.News & World Report, which placed the school at No. 87 in its "America's Best Graduate Schools 2010" guidebook. The college's health law and intellectual property programs also ranked well. The law school’s diverse student body also was noted in the rankings.
  
  
• In 2009. U.S.News & World Report ranked both the health law and intellectual property 13th in their respective categories. Both programs have consistently been cited by U.S.News. DePaul’s health law program surveyed one place higher than Harvard University’s and the intellectual property program at DePaul was ranked 11 places above the one offered by Yale University.
  
  
• U.S. News again recognized DePaul as among those law schools that offered a racially and/or ethnically mixed student body. U.S. News cited diverse schools based on the total proportion of minority students—not including international students—and the mix of racial and ethnic groups on campus.
  
  
• The Princeton Review named the College of Law as one of the best 170 law schools in the United States in its 2006 survey of law schools that are accredited by the American Bar Association.
  
  
• DePaul College of Law professor M. Cherif Bassiouni has been awarded the prestigious Hague Prize for International Law in a ceremony that took place recently in the Netherlands at the Peace Palace in The Hague. Recognized globally for his work to advance human rights through law, Bassiouni was selected for the award because of his outstanding contributions to the study and promotion of international criminal law and specifically for his work to create the International Criminal Court, which is based in The Hague.
  
  
• M. Cherif Bassiouni, a DePaul College of Law professor, longtime advocate of international peace and justice and president of DePaul’s International Human Rights Law Institute, was nominated for the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize.
  
  

Programs

• The juris doctorate (JD) program offers specializations in business law, criminal law, child and family law, health law, intellectual property law & information technology, international and comparative law, and public interest law.
  
  
• The master of laws program (LL.M). offers specializations in health law, international law, intellectual property and taxation.
  
  
• Five joint degree programs are offered:
  • JD/MBA (with the Kellstadt Graduate School of Management)
  • JD/MA in Computer Science/Technology (with the College of Computing and Digital Media)
  • JD/MS in Computer Science/Technology (with the College of Computing and Digital Media)
  • JD/MA in International Studies (with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences)
  • JD/MS in Public Services Management (with the School of Public Service)
    
    

Noteworthy Alumni

• The College of Law has more than 12,000 living alumni. Graduates include the current and two former mayors of Chicago; more than 250 state and federal judges; and some of the nation's top trial lawyers, high-ranking corporate executives, public officials at all levels of government and nationally recognized advocates for social and human rights.
  
  
• Prominent graduates include Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and his father, former mayor Richard J. Daley; William Bauer, senior justice, Seventh Court of Appeals; Robert Clifford, partner, Clifford Law Offices; Robert Harris, public guardian, Cook County; Patricia Mendoza, executive director, Mexican American Legal Education and Defense Fund; Mary Dempsey, commissioner, Chicago Public Library; Jack Greenberg, former CEO, McDonald’s Corp., and Benjamin Hooks, former executive director of the NAACP.
  
  

About the Interim Dean

• Illinois Appellate Court Judge Warren D. Wolfson became interim dean of the College of Law in August 2009 for a two-year term. He brings 33 years of experience on the bench and in the classroom to DePaul. Wolfson began his career as a judge assigned to the Circuit Court of Cook County in 1975, was elected to a full term in 1976 and retained this position through five consecutive terms from 1982 through 2006. He was assigned to the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, in 1994. Prior to his career on the bench, Wolfson spent 18 years in private practice, specializing in criminal defense. In academia, he taught for 15 years at the University of Chicago. Beginning in 1971, he also served as an adjunct professor, instructor and lecturer at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he taught courses in evidence and trial advocacy and directed the trial advocacy program. Wolfson has led workshops for organizations that include the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Education and the Illinois Judicial Conference.

The College of Law Website: http://www.law.depaul.edu/