Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor requires 90 s.h., including required and elective courses. All entering students are expected to take all courses designated as first-year courses and may not register for different courses or fewer semester hours without permission of the associate dean. No student may be enrolled during any fall or spring semester for more than 18 s.h. applicable to the J.D., or for more than 13 s.h. during any two adjacent summer sessions. To be eligible for the J.D., a student must: receive course credit for 90 s.h.; take and complete all required courses; satisfy the writing requirements; complete the course of study required for the degree in no fewer than 27 months after commencing law study at the College of Law or at a law school from which transfer credit has been accepted; and achieve a cumulative g.p.a. of at least 2.10, a C average. Receiving credit in a course is dependent upon successful completion of a final examination, or all assigned work, or both. In order to take the final examination, students must satisfy all requirements established by the instructor, including class attendance, written work, special readings, oral reports, and so forth. First-Year Curriculum One of the distinctive benefits of law study at Iowa is the College of Law's focus on providing students with a foundation in basic skills that will support more advanced study and professional work. The first-year curriculum emphasizes careful reading, essential writing skills, legal research, and argumentation. Students concentrate on developing analytical skills (for example, reading and understanding judicial opinions), gain a sense of the role of legal institutions in society, and focus on developing good writing and research skills. All first-year students take 091:130-091:131 Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research I-II (LAWR), a two-semester, 4 s.h. course designed to equip them with effective skills in oral and written communication, legal research, and analysis. LAWR is staffed by full-time faculty members with expertise in teaching legal research and writing. Class size is small, with around 20 students in each section of the course. LAWR helps students develop legal analysis skills gradually. It teaches the value of critical reading, how to analyze facts and frame legal issues, how to determine which facts are legally significant, and how to extract legal rules from judicial opinions. As the year progresses, students learn how to generate arguments and counter arguments, and how to interpret facts in order to predict the likely outcome of a client's case. They also learn varied methods of legal analysis, including precedential analysis and analysis by analogy. The first-year program emphasizes writing in small increments, with short assignments, frequent feedback, and revisions of written assignments. Because students will eventually practice in a range of legal settings, the program exposes them to varied forms of written documents, such as memoranda, trial briefs, client letters, motions, and appellate briefs, and provides instruction in appropriate formats for the varied documents (e.g., questions presented, argument headings). LAWR uses peer review, requiring students to assess, discuss, and critique their peers' writing assignments. This cooperative process helps students gain insight into their own legal writing abilities and learn to appreciate different approaches to the same task. It also prepares them for the experience of collaborating as practicing lawyers. Students begin to learn about research early in the first year, completing increasingly complex research tasks as the year progresses. LAWR reinforces research techniques covered in the classroom by integrating them into written assignments. It also teaches students the fundamentals of legal research by requiring hands-on library workshops. First-year courses are as follows. Entering first-year students are expected to take all first-year courses and may not register for different courses or fewer hours without the associate dean's permission. Fall Semester 091:102 Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning   1 s.h. 091:120 Contracts and Sales Transactions   4 s.h. 091:130 Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research I   2 s.h. 091:132 Property   4 s.h. 091:364 Torts   4 s.h. Spring Semester 091:104 Civil Procedure   4 s.h. 091:116 Constitutional Law I   3 s.h. 091:124 Criminal Law   3 s.h. 091:131 Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research II   2 s.h. Legal bibliography   One elective   3 s.h. A mandatory curve is applied to the grade distribution in all first-year courses. Upperclass Curriculum In the second and third years, students take courses in a broad array of substantive areas of the law, with focus on fact gathering, interviewing, counseling, drafting, transaction planning, negotiation, and litigation. They also concentrate course work or writing and research opportunities in particular areas of interest. Very few common requirements exist in the second and third years. All students must take 091:232 Constitutional Law II and a course in professional ethics. Writing Requirement All students must earn four upper-level writing units in order to graduate. At least two of the four units must be earned under direct faculty supervision, in courses, seminars, research projects, or legal clinical work. The remaining two may be earned through a combination of courses and activities that carry writing credit, including 091:402 Moot Court Board, advanced appellate advocacy activities, and journals, including the Iowa Law Review, The Journal of Corporation Law, The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice, and Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems. Concentrated Study Opportunities Students may pursue their interest in a particular subject area by selecting appropriate course work and independent research projects. For example, in the intellectual property and competition law focus area, students may take several courses: 091:208 Antitrust Law (3 s.h.), 091:258 Arts and Entertainment Law (2 s.h.), 091:283 Copyrights (4 s.h.), 091:286 Introduction to Intellectual Property Law (3 s.h.), 091:324 Patent Law (4 s.h.), 091:369 Trademarks and Unfair Competition Law (4 s.h.), 091:608 Advanced Topics in Intellectual Property (3-4 s.h.), 091:626 Federal Antitrust Policy (3-4 s.h.), 091:604 Patent Prosecution Seminar (3-4 s.h.), 091:241 Corporations I (4 s.h.), 091:306 The Law of Electronic Media (2-3 s.h.), 091:355 Securities Regulation (4 s.h.), 091:618 Cultural Property (arr.), and 091:624 Cyberspace Law Seminar (arr.). Independent Research A student may sign up for 1-3 s.h. in 091:500 Independent Research Project after obtaining authorization from the faculty member who agrees to supervise the student's project. When independent research involves a paper, the work must include research and the submission of at least one draft to the faculty member for comments; a second draft generally is required, and the faculty member may require additional drafts. Students may earn additional credit for longer papers. Generally, each 1 s.h. of credit requires 20 pages of double-spaced text, excluding footnotes. Exceptions may be made for projects that involve substantial empirical work. Students who wish to pursue independent research should contact one of the professors who have been designated to supervise a limited number of student writing and research projects during that semester; the designated professors are listed in the semester's registration materials. Students may not register for more than 3 s.h. for a single research project. They also may apply no more than 6 s.h. of independent research toward the J.D., and they may take no more than 4 s.h under the supervision of the same faculty member, unless the limit is waived by the dean or the dean's delegate. Papers produced for independent research may be eligible for entry in competitions sponsored by varied groups. Cash prizes frequently are available. Competition announcements are posted on the bulletin boards outside the college's Writing Resource Center. Supplementary Writing In Supplementary Writing (091:502), a faculty member supervises one or more students in connection with a substantive course taught by the faculty member and for which the student has registered. The writing project builds on or proceeds from the materials covered in the related course and entails work beyond the course's content. At the faculty member's discretion, students may take Supplementary Writing during the same semester as the substantive course or during the following semester. Supplementary Writing projects are graded separately from the related course. Registration materials typically include the names of faculty members offering the course, and for each faculty member, the name of the related substantive course, the number of writing units available, and reasonable details specified for structuring the writing. Directed Research and Writing In Directed Research and Writing (091:501), a faculty member supervises a student in a research and writing project unrelated to any substantive course. Each faculty member who plans to teach Directed Research and Writing lists the general subject area and/or specific topics he or she will supervise and may specify other details about how the writing supervision will be structured (e.g., topic selection, submission dates, required outlines, preliminary submissions). Students may register for the course without the faculty member's prior consent. Registration materials typically include the names of faculty members offering the course, and for each faculty member, the subject matter (a general category or detailed topics, at the faculty member's discretion), the number of writing units available, and reasonable details specified for structuring the writing. Writing Tutorial The Writing Tutorial (091:503) combines features of 091:504 Tutorial and 091:501 Directed Research and Writing. A faculty member lists the subject matter and/or specific topics he or she will supervise and provides the writing supervision in a group setting. The faculty member also specifies the subject and the general approach for group meetings and decides how the group members will interact in connection with the writing project (for instance, group members may work on separate parts of a single project, or on separate but related projects). Enrollment in Writing Tutorial is limited by the number of writing units the faculty member offers. Students earn the same number of semester hours and writing units for their work in a Writing Tutorial. Registration materials typically include the names of faculty members offering the course, and for each faculty member, the subject matter (a general category or more detailed topics, at the faculty member's discretion), the number of writing units available, and reasonable details specified for structuring the writing and the tutorial's group process. Seminars Students should direct questions about a seminar's requirements to the College of Law registrar or the instructor before the seminar begins, because they may not be permitted to drop the class after it meets the first time. Seminars usually offer up to 4 s.h., including up to 2 writing units. Seminar formats vary widely; consult the College of Law Guide to Courses and semester registration materials for details. Students are graded on the basis of a research paper, and at the instructor's discretion, for class participation and other seminar requirements. A common seminar format consists of a class portion for 2 s.h. (usually in the fall), and a writing portion for 2 s.h. (usually in the spring). The total 4 s.h. must be allocated between the semesters as best accommodates the student's schedule. Reduction of credit for seminars requires the instructor's consent. In some seminars, the instructor may permit the student to enroll for the class portion but not the writing portion. The students' performance in the class portion is evaluated on the same basis as for other courses--by examinations, papers, class participation, or other methods at the faculty member's discretion. Students must obtain the instructor's consent before registering. Papers produced for seminars may be eligible for entry in competitions sponsored by varied groups. Cash prizes frequently are available. Competition announcements are posted on the bulletin boards outside the college's Writing Resource Center. Tutorial A student may sign up for 1-3 s.h. for work in 091:504 Tutorial after obtaining authorization from the faculty member who agrees to supervise the student's project. Tutorials may involve different types of pedagogical techniques, such as discussion sessions, assignments of problems, or short papers. In all tutorials, the student and faculty member must meet for at least five hours for each 1 s.h. the student earns. No writing units are awarded for tutorials. To register, students must submit a form that confirms the arrangement with the faculty member; forms are available from the College of Law registrar. Clinical Programs, Internships, Clerkships Students who have completed the equivalent of three semesters toward their J.D. degrees (summer entrants may count the first full summer session as one semester) are eligible to apply their theoretical knowledge to real cases under the supervision of faculty members and other attorneys through participation in the College of Law's Clinical Law Programs. Some 30 students participate each semester in the in-house programs. They may represent individual and organizational clients in a variety of areas including immigration, domestic violence, criminal defense, consumer/bankruptcy, disability, nonprofit organizations, civil rights, employment law, and general civil practice. Other students may enroll in externships in Iowa City and the surrounding area, where they act as staff attorneys, assisting in all phases of the legal process. Typical placements include Student Legal Services, Iowa Legal Aid (Iowa City and Cedar Rapids), HELP Legal Services (Davenport), the City Attorney's Office (Iowa City), Kids First (Cedar Rapids), the federal public defender (Cedar Rapids), the United States Attorney's Offices (Cedar Rapids and Rock Island, Illinois), and several federal judges, including the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (Cedar Rapids). A clinical semester also is available, in which students spend an entire semester in the Iowa Attorney General's Office, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Youth Law Center, or the federal court, all in Des Moines. Students may earn a total of up to 15 s.h. in the Clinical Law Programs and up to 20 s.h. for clinic and nonlaw courses offered in other University of Iowa colleges. The College of Law also is involved in programs that do not carry academic credit. Each summer it participates in the County Attorney Internship Program, through which students work as paid employees for county attorneys throughout the state and in the Poverty Law Internship Program, placing students in Iowa Legal Aid offices. The college also helps place students in a variety of unpaid clerkships and internships nationwide that provide insight into the workings of the legal system.

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