Yale Law students find themselves immersed in academic excellence and an intellectual community of New Haven. Through courses, clinics, affinity groups and events that allow them to customize their learning experience to suit themselves best, students at Yale find plenty of ways to sculpt their education experience for themselves.
Small classes and faculty-supervised writing requirements foster close mentorship and individual scholarly engagement for each student, while also creating lasting friendships among classmates or apartment neighbors.
The Campus
Yale Law School occupies an entire city block in downtown New Haven. At its core is the Sterling Law Building with its courtyards and student lounge. Other campus features include Lillian Goldman Law Library, faculty offices and dining hall.
Yale is known for fostering close ties between its students. Many know all their classmates by the end of their first year, creating tight-knit social circles through classes, clinical teams and student affinity groups.
Yale faculty have an enormous impact on legal scholarship and practice. Their pioneering work during the 1930s helped pioneer legal realism – an approach to legal analysis emphasizing social and contextual influences on court decisions – that continues to shape contemporary legal theory and practice. Yale graduates are frequently sought-after judicial clerkship positions; Yale consistently leads in placement rates nationwide for such clerkships – former clerks include Attorneys General Nicholas Katzenbach, Edwin Meese, John Ashcroft; Peace Corps founder Sargent Shriver as well as prominent academics Thurman Arnold and Jerome Frank.
The City
Yale Law graduates are sought-after across all areas of legal practice, from judicial clerkships and biglaw firms where many graduates begin their careers, to corporate law, government service, academia and public interest work. Yale also emphasizes pro bono work through student pro bono services beginning as early as their first year – with your campaign gifts helping support fellowships, loan forgiveness and an exceptional faculty that make Yale Law one of the premier law schools nationwide.
Students thrive in an academically rigorous environment that nurtures their passions and ideals. Our intimate student body forms close bonds across small groups, classrooms and clinical teams – many lasting long after graduation! Furthermore, the flexible curriculum allows them to pursue intellectual interests that transcend legal disciplines.
The Academic Community
At Yale Law School (YLS), our students belong to an intricate intellectual and social community that extends far beyond the classroom. Centers, programs, and workshops — inspired by faculty and student interests — extend the curriculum, support research initiatives, and engage our entire community in serious academic inquiry on subjects like human rights law, corporate law, international law, legal history and more.
At their first semester of studies, new students begin with an intensive program of study. Each one is assigned a mentor who guides their progress, while being encouraged to engage in academic pursuits beyond classroom walls. Every year dozens of these newcomers receive funding for summer public-interest internships both domestically and internationally.
Students can customize their education at Yale by enrolling in joint degrees with its graduate programs, such as JD-MBAs or JD-MAs in subjects like Global Affairs. Furthermore, over 70 student affinity groups and activities allow for socialization with fellow students – from affinity groups and activities to joining affinity groups in society or government agencies/offices or corporations/businesses or nonprofit organizations. Our graduates go on to careers such as private practice, the judiciary, government agencies/offices or corporations/businesses or nonprofit organizations.
The Students
Yale stands out as an epicenter of intellectual curiosity and groundbreaking innovation among law schools. To secure admission into this elite program, students must demonstrate a variety of abilities: legal reasoning skills, academic excellence, leadership potential and organizational capability.
YLS not only offers the esteemed JD degree, but also an LL.M program for non-lawyers and an LLM for select graduate students seeking terminal graduate degrees. Our graduates work in private practice, government (at all levels from local to federal, including Congress and President offices and judiciaries); corporations; academia.
YLS boasts an unparalleled legacy of academic excellence and educational intimacy, evidenced by its world-class faculty, small classes, limitless opportunities for clinical training and strong support for public service. Students come from every background and corner of the world – and pursue diverse interests such as competitive synchronized swimming, foreign policy advisory roles, speechwriting for government offices or broadcast media, police drill instructors or sketch writers for television shows like 30 Rock – with professional opera singers also among our ranks!
