University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (formerly University of Maryland School of Law) is the law school of the University of Maryland, Baltimore and is located in Baltimore City, Maryland, U.S. Its location places Maryland Law in the Baltimore-Washington legal and business community.[3] Founded in 1816, it is one of the oldest law schools in the United States.

University of Maryland
Francis King Carey School of Law
Parent schoolUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore
Established1816 (1816)
School typePublic law school
DeanRenée M. Hutchins
LocationBaltimore, Maryland, U.S.
39.2893°N 76.6224°W / 39.2893; -76.6224
Enrollment705 (part- and full-time, JDTooltip Juris Doctor, LLMTooltip Master of Laws, & MSLTooltip Master of Science in Law)
Faculty59 full-time; 112 adjunct[1]
USNWR ranking51st (2023)[2]
Bar pass rate85% (2021)
Websitewww.law.umaryland.edu
ABA profileLSAC Official Guide 2018

The law school is fully accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA). It is a member of the Association of American Law Schools and has a chapter of the Order of the Coif honor society.

History

Maryland Law was founded in 1816[4] as the Maryland Law Institute. David Hoffman is credited with founding the institute and in 1817 he published his legal course Hoffman's Course of Legal Study. The school began regular instruction beginning in 1824, and it is the second-oldest law school in the United States, behind only William & Mary Law School. After the law school denied admission to black applicant Donald Gaines Murray on account of his race, in 1936 the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that the law school must admit him.[5]

In 2002, the law school moved into a facility in downtown Baltimore near the Inner Harbor and Oriole Park at Camden Yards.[6] In 2011, the law school received a US$30 million donation from the W.P. Carey Foundation, the largest gift in the school's history. In response, the law school changed its name to the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.[7]

Student body

Maryland Law has approximately 650 students enrolled in its Juris Doctor (J.D.) program.[1] The racial makeup of students in the J.D. program is approximately 68% white, with about 30% identifying as a minority race (and the remainder are unknown or did not specify).[1] Around 72% of J.D. students are under 25 years old.[8] There are more than 40 student organizations,[9] four specialized legal centers,[10] and five law journals.[11]

In 2019, Maryland Law enrolled 205 students into its first-year J.D. class, including 179 full-time students and 26 part-time students. The median LSAT score was 160, and the median undergraduate GPA was 3.66. The law school accepted approximately 36% of its applicants.[1]

Rankings

The law school was ranked 51st by the U.S. News & World Report in 2023-2024. The 2023 edition ranked Maryland Law 6th in part-time programs, 6th in health care law, 13th in environmental law, 12th in dispute resolution, and 8th in clinical training.[2]

Bar passage and employment outcomes

According to Maryland Law's official data reported to the American Bar Association, approximately 77% of Maryland Law graduates who took the bar exam for the first time in 2019 passed. In addition, 94% of 2019 J.D. graduates were employed in some capacity ten months after graduation.[12] These 2019 graduates became employed in a variety of contexts, including approximately 35% in judicial clerkships (4% federal clerkships and 31% state and local clerkships), 23% in government, 20% in private practice, 11% in business and industry, 5% in public interest, and 4% in education. For 2018 J.D. graduates who entered private practice within ten months of graduation, the median starting salary was $80,000.[13]

Costs

During the 2019-2020 academic year, tuition and fees for full-time J.D. students were $32,808 for Maryland residents and $48,426 for out-of-state students. For part-time J.D. students, tuition and fees were $21,538 for Maryland residents and $31,704 for out-of-state students. The estimated total cost of attendance for J.D. students, which includes tuition and fees, living expenses, transportation expenses, book expenses, and health insurance, was $61,745 for full-time students who are Maryland residents, $79,277 for full-time out-of-state students, $45,123 for part-time students who are Maryland residents, and $56,972 for part-time out-of-state students.[14] In addition, 77% of students received a scholarship or grant from Maryland Law, including 78% of full-time students and 74% of part-time students.[1]

Academics

Core

The core curriculum at Maryland Law for J.D. students includes courses in civil procedure, constitutional law, torts, property, contracts, and criminal law, as well as a two-semester sequence of courses focusing on legal skills of analysis, research, writing, and oral argument. After completing these initial courses, students are required to complete additional coursework in constitutional law, ethics, and legal research, and satisfy experiential and writing requirements.[15] This core curriculum forms the basis for more specialized study through more than 150 elective courses, seminars, independent studies, simulations, clinics, and externships.

The LL.M. degree program is designed for students who have earned a prior law degree, either a J.D. degree from a law school in the United States or a law degree from a school in another country. Students must complete coursework in a specialty field and may choose to write a thesis. LL.M. students who did not earn a prior law degree in an American law school must take a course on introductory American law, but otherwise, no specific courses are required for LL.M. students.[16]

Specialty programs

Maryland Law is home to several specialty programs that enable students to explore areas of interest through experiential learning and a specialized curriculum. The main specialty areas include:[10]

  • Alternative Dispute Resolution
  • Business Law
  • Clinical Law
  • Cybersecurity and Crisis Management
  • Environmental Law
  • Health Care Law
  • Intellectual Property Law
  • International and Comparative Law
  • Public Health Law
  • Women, Leadership, and Equality

Students can focus in other areas as well, such as criminal law, dispute resolution, family law/child advocacy, general practice, jurisprudence/legal history, labor/employment law, administrative law, property/real estate/decedent's estates law, public interest law/community development, and tax law.

Clinical law program

Through the Cardin Requirement, named after Maryland Law alumnus U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin, each full-time day student in the J.D. program must gain hands-on legal experience by representing actual clients who would otherwise lack access to justice. Most students fulfill the Cardin Requirement through the Clinical Law Program,[17] which provides free legal services to Maryland's poorest citizens each year.

More than 25 clinics[18] focus on a broad range of practice areas, including civil and criminal litigation, advice and counseling, and transactional work. Civil practice areas include environmental law, health, housing and community development, juvenile law and children, AIDS, and immigration. Criminal student attorneys often represent defendants in misdemeanor cases in Maryland's district courts, as well as work in the School of Law's community justice efforts. In addition to in-house clinical work, students may gain experience in public and private nonprofit externships in the Baltimore-Washington region.

Initiatives

In addition to formal specialty programs, the law school sponsors a variety of academic and public service initiatives. These initiatives enhance the educational and scholarly mission of the law school and also serve the community.[19]

  • Agriculture Law Education Initiative
  • Chacón Center for Immigrant Justice
  • Leadership, Ethics and Democracy (LEAD) Initiative: In spring 2008, the Fetzer Institute made a three-year $1.6 million funding commitment to the School of Law to help it respond to these challenges and create a Leadership, Ethics and Democracy program (LEAD).[20]
  • Legislation, politics, and public policy: The University of Maryland School of Law offers students an educational experience in the areas of legislation, public policy and public interest practice.[21]
  • Linking law and the arts: The University of Maryland School of Law, in conjunction with local arts organizations and as part of the "Linking Law and Arts" series, uses theater and art to help address complex legal, social, and public policy issues.[22] As part of their commitment to blending law and the arts, students and professors at Maryland Law produced a short film in 2010 about the handling of war tribunals at Guantanamo Bay titled "The Response" starring Aasif Mandvi.[23] UMD Carey Law is also one of fewer than 10 law schools in the United States to offer a course in Visual Legal Advocacy, teaching students how to and encouraging them to incorporate cinema into their advocacy work.[24]
  • The Moser Ethics in Action Initiative The successor to the LEAD Initiative.
  • Erin Levitas Initiative for Sexual Assault Prevention

Dual-degree programs

The law school offers several dual-degree options:[25]

Business

Maryland Law has a combined J.D./M.B.A.Tooltip Master of Business Administration through:[25]

Public policy

There are several dual-degree options in the field of public policy:[25]

Health

Law and society

Campus

Maryland Law, including the Thurgood Marshall Law Library, occupies a complex that supports the school's programs integrating classroom and experiential learning. The facility opened in 2002 and contains three courtrooms, including the Ceremonial Moot Courtroom, where state and federal trial and appellate courts regularly sit in session to hear cases.[26]

The Thurgood Marshall Law Library houses a collection of more than 495,000 volumes and equivalents accessible through the online catalog.[27] A staff of 23, including 11 librarians, provides customized reference and consulting services to faculty and students. In addition to LexisNexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg Law, the library offers a legal and non-legal Web-based electronic databases.

The library is named after Justice Thurgood Marshall. Despite growing up in Baltimore, he was unable to attend Maryland Law because, in the 1930s, the school denied all African Americans admission. Marshall attended Howard University School of Law.[28]

Publications
  • Maryland Law Review
  • Journal of Health Care Law & Policy
  • Journal of Business & Technology Law
  • Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class
  • Journal of International Law

Notable alumni
Main article: List of University of Maryland School of Law alumni

References
  1. "Maryland, University of - 2020 Standard 509 Information Report" (PDF). American Bar Association. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  2. "University of Maryland (Carey)". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
  3. "Law Schools: University of Maryland School of Law". Martindale.com Professional Resources. Archived from the original on November 14, 2004. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  4. University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. "David Hoffman: Life, Letters and Lectures at the University of Maryland 1821-1837". Faculty Scholarship. University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Retrieved April 7, 2021. David Hoffman was a prominent pioneer in the establishment of university-based legal education. He helped to found the University of Maryland Law School in 1816 and was its first professor. His A Course of Legal Study (1817) and Legal Outlines (1829) played a critical role in the development of law school curricula and provided guidance to hundreds of antebellum law students and attorneys.
  5. "JBHE Chronology of Major Landmarks in the Progress of African Americans in Higher Education", JBHE.
  6. "Faculty: Karen Rothenberg". UM Carey Law. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  7. "Carey Foundation Donates $30M to UMDLaw". UM Carey Law. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  8. "Official Guide: 2014 ABA Data – University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law" (PDF). LSAC.org. Law School Admission Council, Inc. 2013. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  9. "Student Life: Student Organizations". UM Carey Law. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  10. "Programs and Impact". University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  11. "Academics: Journals". UM Carey Law. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  12. "Maryland, University of - Employment Summary for 2019 Graduates" (PDF). American Bar Association. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  13. "University of Maryland School of Law, Class of 2018 Summary Report" (PDF). National Association for Law Placement. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
  14. "2019-2020 Estimated Cost of Attendance and Financial Aid: University of Maryland Carey School of Law" (PDF). University Student Financial Assistance and Enrollment Services. University of Maryland, Baltimore. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  15. "Curriculum, Advising, & Policies". University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  16. "LL.M. Curriculum". University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  17. "Maryland Law - Clinical Law". Law.umaryland.edu. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  18. "Maryland Carey Law - Course Catalog Search". Law.umaryland.edu. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  19. "Initiatives". University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  20. "Maryland Carey Law - About the Moser Initiative". Law.umaryland.edu. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  21. "Maryland Carey Law - Legislation, Politics, and Public Policy". Law.umaryland.edu. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  22. "Maryland Law - Linking Law & the Arts". Law.umaryland.edu. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  23. "The Response - About the Movie". Theresponsemovie.com. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  24. "UM Carey Law | Abstracts & Professional Biographies". Law.umaryland.edu. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
  25. "Academics: Dual Degree Programs". UM Carey Law. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  26. "Notebook Computer Requirement for the Entering Class". Archived from the original on July 23, 2005. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
  27. "Thurgood Marshall Law Library - University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law". Law.umaryland.edu. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
  28. Folkenflik, David (August 20, 1995). "Marshall may not have tried to enroll in UM law school". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
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