Wayne State University Law School

For the class entering in fall 2019, the Law School had 434 students, including 395 full-time students and 39 part-time students; 132 degrees and certificates were conferred in 2018-19. The Law School had 38 full-time faculty during this period. [4]

Wayne Law offers six different degree options.

Wayne Law offers three J.D. program options for students. They include a full-time day program, a combined day and evening program, and a part-time evening program.

Wayne Law's online Master of Studies in Law (MSL) degree is specifically designed to help specialists in human resources expand their knowledge of legal principles and the U.S. legal system.

Lawyers who already have earned a J.D. degree from an accredited U.S. law school or an equivalent degree in another country and satisfy Wayne Law's LL.M. admissions criteria are eligible to undertake advanced legal studies for a LL.M. degree at Wayne Law. LL.M. majors include Corporate and Finance Law, Labor and Employment Law, and Taxation.

Wayne Law’s joint J.D./LL.M. degree program allows students to earn both a J.D. and LL.M. in only seven semesters, rather than the eight semesters that would usually be required for a full-time student to complete both a J.D. degree (in three years) and an LL.M. degree (in one year).

Wayne Law offers dual degree programs allowing students to earn both a J.D. and a master’s degree. Students can earn a master’s in one of the following disciplines in conjunction with other schools at Wayne State:

• Business administration – Mike Ilitch School of Business
• Criminal justice – Department of Criminal Justice, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Dispute resolution – Department of Communication, College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts
• Economics – Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• History – History Department, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Political science – Political Science Department, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Wayne State University undergraduate students can earn a minor in law. There are three different tracks by which students can complete the minor—one track is offered by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, one by the Mike Ilitch School of Business, and one by the School of Social Work.

Wayne Law operates six clinics that are directed by expert faculty and experienced practitioners. The clinics provide hands-on casework to law students while simultaneously assisting residents of the metro Detroit community.

• Appeal and Post-Conviction Advocacy Clinic (formerly the Criminal Appellate Practice Clinic)
• Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic, in partnership with Michigan's State Appellate Defender Office
• Business and Community Law Clinic
• Community Advocacy Clinic
• Disability Law Clinic
• Immigration Appellate Advocacy Clinic
• Legal Advocacy for People with Cancer Clinic, a  medical-legal partnership with Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute
• Patent Procurement Clinic, a legal partnership with Brooks Kushman Law Firm

The Legal Advocacy for People with Cancer Clinic was named one of the nation's most innovative law school clinics by The National Jurist .[5]

Academic journals at Wayne Law include:

Founded in 1997, The Journal of Law in Society is a student-managed publication of Wayne Law that provides scholarly discourse on the intersection of law and society. It is the scholarly arm of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne Law.

Established in 2017, the Journal of Business Law is a scholarly peer-reviewed journal operated and edited by students at Wayne Law.

The Wayne Law Review contains articles, book reviews, transcripts, notes and comments by prominent academics, practitioners and students on timely legal topics.

Externships are an academic program that allows students to earn credit for work at an approved placement with a court, nonprofit organization, state or federal agency, or in-house counsel program.

Wayne Law offers three externship programs and a Free Legal Aid Clinic to J.D. and LL.M. students:

• Corporate Counsel Externship
• Judicial Externship
• Public Service Externship
• Public Service 2 Externship: Social Justice Lawyering

In 2011, Wayne Law opened the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne Law, named for Judge Damon J. Keith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, an alumnus of the Law School. The Keith Center addresses the civil rights needs of southeast Michigan and the nation by promoting the educational, economic and political power of underrepresented communities in urban settings. The Detroit Equity Action Lab at the Keith Center is funded by $2.9 million from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The center is also home to the Damon J. Keith Collection of African-American Legal History.[6]

In 2015, The Levin Center at Wayne Law was established and named for former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin. The Levin Center educates future attorneys, business leaders, legislators and public servants on their role overseeing public and private institutions and using oversight as an instrument of change.[7][8]

The Program for International Legal Studies is the focal point for all international activity at Wayne Law. Its study abroad programs and international fellowships give students a first-hand view of other nations' legal systems and approaches to legal education.

According to Wayne Law’s ABA-required disclosures for the class of 2019, 85.1% of graduates were employed in full-time, long-term positions that require bar passage or are J.D. advantage within ten months of graduation. Wayne Law’s overall employment rate for the class of 2019 was 88.6%. Wayne Law is No. 51 nationally and No. 2 in Michigan for placing recent graduates in full-time, long-term jobs that require bar passage or for which a J.D. is an advantage.[12]

Resident tuition is available to Michigan residents and those who qualify for the university's Good Neighbor Program, including residents of Ontario, Canada, or the contiguous counties of Ohio (Fulton, Lucas, Ottawa, and Williams counties).