Academic Program

Focusing your legal studies

Electives are one way in which you can expand your legal knowledge and experience beyond the content of your required courses. Students also take advantage of New England's clinical programs and clerkships, and they get involved in co-curricular activities, such as upperclass moot court and scholarly journals. All of these pursuits build competence and enhance a resume.

This section includes the highlights of several substantive areas in which students may choose to focus their studies.

In addition, New England School of Law emphasizes the need for Skills Development.

Tax law

Courses

• Personal Income Taxation (the basic tax course that all students are encouraged to take)
• Advanced courses in the following sequence: Taxation of Business Entities, Business Planning, Advanced Corporate Taxation
• Tax Practice and Procedure

Clinical experience

• Placements at the Appellate Tax Board of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue

Co-curricular activities

• Participate in the National Tax Moot Court Competition
• Sign up for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program

International law

Courses

• Admiralty, Comparative Constitutional Law, Conflict of Laws, European Union Law, Immigration Law and Procedure, Indigenous Peoples' Rights, International Business Transactions, International Criminal Law, International Criminal Tribunals from Nuremberg to the Present, International Environmental Law, International Human Rights Law, International Organizations, Public International Law, International War Crimes Prosecution Project, International Women's Issues, Law of the United Nations
• As part of a program pioneered by New England School of Law, relevant international law is taught in domestic law courses throughout the curriculum, including Business Organizations, Civil Procedure, Computer Law, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Copyright, Criminal Law, Family Law, Law and Ethics of Lawyering, Law and the Elderly, Products Liability, Property, and Tax Law.

Clinical experience

• The International Law Clinic offers placements through the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment, the German and Taiwan consulates, the office of Physicians for Human Rights, and other law firms and agencies.
• The Immigration Law Clinic offers placements in agencies and firms that provide representation to aliens involved in proceedings before the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Co-curricular activities

• Write for or serve on the editorial board of the New England Journal of International and Comparative Law, published on the Internet
• Participate in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition
• Join the International Law Society

Study abroad programs

• "Summer 2008 Ireland Program"
• New England School of Law co-sponsors three other summer abroad programs and three semester abroad programs with three other law schools.
• Students may spend a summer studying in London/Edinburgh, Prague, and Malta.
• Students may spend a semester studying in Denmark or The Netherlands.
• The law school sponsors a one-semester exchange program at the University of Paris X-Nanterre.
• The school will accept credit for courses taken in any summer abroad program approved by the American Bar Association. In recent years, students have attended programs in Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, China, and Argentina.
• Click here for more information about summers abroad

New England Center for International Law and Policy

• Hosts an international conference each year. Past topics have included "Problems and Prospects for China's Reunification or Taiwan's Independence" and "Competing Competition Laws: Do We Need a Global Standard?"
• Sponsors the International War Crimes Prosecution Project, through which students provide research assistance to the prosecutors for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda

Environmental law

Courses

• Environmental Law (survey course, appropriate for students planning to concentrate in environmental law, as well as for those seeking only a basic understanding of the field)
• Seminars in Environmental Advocacy, Global Warming Law and Policy, and International Environmental Law
• Related courses in Administrative Law, American Indian Law, Land Use, and Negotiation
• Opportunities to pursue graduate-level courses in environmental science and policy at neighboring universities

Clinical Experience

• Clinics in Administrative Law, Environmental Law, The Government Lawyer, and Land Use
• The Environmental Law Clinic offers placements at the regional office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, the Environmental Protection Division of the Massachusetts attorney general's office, environmental activist organizations, and private firms.

Co-curricular activities

• Participate in the Environmental Law Moot Court Competition
• Environmental Law Society, which sponsors projects and belongs to the New England Environmental Law Society (NEELS), an organization that includes students from the six Boston-area law schools
• Engage in an environmental justice project in connection with the seminar

Business law

Courses

• Accounting for Lawyers, Antitrust, Bankruptcy and Creditors' Rights, Business Organizations, Business Planning, Business Transactions for Lawyers, Copyright Law, Employment Law, International Business Transactions, Labor Law, Labor Relations Practice and Procedure, Negotiation, Regulated Industries, Securities Regulation, Taxation of Business Entities, Trademarks and Unfair Competition, courses on the Uniform Commercial Code

Clinical experience

• The Practice Credit for Business Law permits students to earn credit by assisting attorneys in handling business law matters, when arranged in cooperation with a faculty member in the subject area and the clinical director.
• Related placements in Administrative Law, Employment Law, and International Law clinics.

Skills development -- A priority

Preparation for a legal career must include a strong substantive background, but it is not complete without training in the skills that allow an attorney to translate that knowledge into practice. New England School of Law has built an integrated program that results in a cohesive approach to substantive law and lawyering skills.

Professional responsibility

A critical aspect of a New England School of Law education is instructing students in the ethical requirements of legal practice and teaching them to consider these issues as they arise in the course of study and work. The school's policy directs professors to raise these issues in all courses.

Professional Skills/Clinical Programs

Legal educators and employers increasingly emphasize the importance of instruction during law school in the skills that characterize good lawyering. New England School of Law offers sixteen clinics, each of which has a required classroom component. Other courses -- such as Civil Motions Practice, Clinical Evidence, Mediation, Negotiation, and Trial Practice -- include extensive simulation exercises through which students become familiar with legal practice methods.

Seminars

The small class environment in seminar courses provides an excellent opportunity to develop learning skills derived from concentrated study and to increase the ability to lead discussions. A seminar also provides an opportunity to write a substantial paper. Seminars usually have no more than 25 students.

Legal Research and Writing

Legal research and legal writing are mainstays of legal practice. Given the importance of these skills, each student is required to take three semesters of legal research and writing. These courses provide students with opportunities to learn how to research law in both primary and secondary sources. Students also learn to write several different kinds of legal documents.

In both the first- and second-year required courses, students complete a research and writing project that requires substantial legal analysis and ensures that a student leaves law school with at least two polished written works that reflect the student's written communication skills. In addition, these courses include preparation and presentation of oral arguments on motions and appellate briefs, through which students gain oral advocacy skills.

Students have numerous other opportunities to refine their legal research and writing skills at New England School of Law.

• Required and elective courses may require papers.
• Seminars require a substantial paper.
• Students in their last year may register to do independent legal research on an area of the law not covered by a scheduled course or only touched on in the curriculum; this project must be conducted under the supervision of a faculty member with expertise in the area and must culminate in a written paper.

Academic Excellence Program

The Academic Excellence Program, an optional program for first-year students, is part of a coordinated effort at New England School of Law to provide teaching and supervised skills practice to promote success in the study of law. In the fall term, weekly sessions include exercises that reinforce skills learned in first-year classes. These include preparing for class, analyzing cases, interpreting statutory law, and reviewing for examinations. In the spring term, the program concentrates on legal reasoning and writing exercises based on examination questions.

The Academic Excellence Program is one of several programs at New England that focus on developing academic skills. Others include

• The Charles Hamilton Houston Enrichment Program
• A writing clinic, staffed by a trained writing professional, that assists students throughout law school who need help with written work
• The Bar Assistance Program, which provides graduating students with a review of subjects that are heavily tested on the bar exam and with training in taking multiple choice questions and writing bar exam essays
• Small-group sessions and individual tutorials tailored to specific student interests

These programs are designed to supplement the standard curriculum, especially in the critical first year of law study. All students are invited to participate. For first-year students, the programs are coordinated with required courses.

Required Courses

Scheduling Options