Educating Legal Scholars

Students at Virginia Law benefit from courses and opportunities that prepare them for academic careers or to practice law at the highest levels of the profession.

In a recent study, UVA ranked No. 5 in the number of graduates teaching as professors in top law schools.

Video/Audio Presentations

Courses

Among Virginia’s 250 courses each year, several classes help students refine advanced writing and skills that aid in the process of academic legal work or other kinds of advanced practice, such as appellate litigation.

Sample Courses

Numbers in parentheses indicate which academic year(s) the courses were offered, i.e., 2019-20 is coded (20), 2020-21 is coded (21) and 2021-22 is coded (22). (SC) stands for short course and (YR) stands for yearlong. 

  • Advanced LawTech (YR) (22)
  • Advanced Legal Research (20,21,22)
  • Advanced Administrative Law (22)
  • Advanced Campaign Finance Seminar (22)
  • Advanced Topics in Law of the Police (21,22)
  • Advanced Topics in the Law of Armed Conflict (JAG) (20,21)
  • Advanced Topics in the First Amendment (Religion Clauses) (21)
  • Antitrust Review of Mergers in a Global Environment (20,21,22)
  • Class Actions and Aggregate Litigation (20,21,22)
  • Comparative Constitutional Law (20,21,22)
  • Constitutional Law II: Freedom of Speech and Press (20,21,22)
  • Constitutional Law II: Poverty (21,22)
  • Constitutional Law II: Religious Liberty (20,21,22)
  • Constitutional Law II: Survey of Civil Liberties (20,22)
  • Constitutionalism: History and Jurisprudence (20,21,22)
  • Constitutionalism: Nation, Culture and Constitutions (20,21,22)
  • Critical Perspectives in Business Law (22)
  • Cryptocurrency Law and Policy (SC) (22)
  • Cryptocurrency Regulation (SC) (21,22)
  • Current Issues in Corporate Law and Governance (20,21)
  • Current Issues in Law and Psychological Science (20)
  • Current Topics in Law, Medicine and Society (SC) (20,21,22)
  • Discrimination Theory (21,22)
  • English Legal History to 1776 (21)
  • Financial Crime: Risks, Risk Management and Compliance (22)
  • Free Speech and the Digital Age (22)
  • Global Legal History (20,22)
  • Law in American History: Twentieth Century (20,21,22)
  • Legal Theory in Europe and the United States: A Very Brief Introduction (SC) (20,21,22)
  • Legal Theory Workshop Seminar (20,22)
  • Liberalism and Its Critics (21,22)
  • Corporate Strategy (20)
  • Criminology (20,21,22)
  • Jurisprudence (20,21,22)
  • Law and Economics Colloquium (20,21,22)
  • Law and Economics Colloquium (20,21,22)
  • Law and Social Science Colloquium (20,21,22)
  • Law and Technology Colloquium (22)
  • Legislation (20,21,22)
  • Legislation and Regulation (20,21,22)
  • Monetary Constitution Seminar (20,22)
  • Plea Bargaining (20)
  • Quantitative Methods (20,21,22)
  • Rules (21,22)
  • Social Science in Law (20,21,22)
  • Supreme Court Justices and the Art of Judging (20,21,22)
  • Truth, Lies and Statistics for Lawyers (SC) (21,22)
  • Urban Law and Policy (20)

All Courses

Clinics 

  • Appellate Litigation Clinic (20,21,22)
  • Supreme Court Litigation Clinic (20,21,22)

All Clinics

Clerkships

From 2005 to today, Virginia Law is fifth after Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Chicago in the number of alumni who have clerked on the U.S. Supreme Court. More

Dual-Degree Programs

Virginia promotes interdisciplinary scholarship through the option to earn advanced degrees in a number of fields, including English, government/foreign affairs, history, philosophy, public policy, business, urban and environmental planning, public health and accounting. The Law School also offers several external dual-degree programs in conjunction with other universities. More

Scholarly Workshops

Students in some courses are invited to attend workshops in which faculty from UVA Law and across the country present their works in progress on cutting-edge legal topics. In the Program on Legal and Consitutional History, students in the dual J.D.-master's in history program present their work for feedback from faculty and their peers.

UVA Law Workshop Series

Path to Higher Ed

Forging a Path in Legal Education

Leslie Kendrick ’06 was studying and teaching Renaissance English literature at Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship when she realized she wanted to go to law school.

“One thing I really appreciated about law was that it was a really big tent,” she said. “You never knew where that degree was going to take you.”

Kendrick’s path through law school, and those of her colleagues and fellow faculty members, offer a map to understanding how the school helps develop interested students into academics, and faculty into leaders in their fields. The key landmarks of the journey include opportunities to write and clerk, mentoring and support from faculty, the camaraderie of the student body, and the faculty’s commitment to fostering a stimulating intellectual community.

More