Highlights
Ten Key Strengths of Elon Law
1. The Preceptor Program
Cited in Elon’s selection as one of “America’s 20 most innovative law schools”
“Elon’s Preceptor Program is one of the only programs in the country in which students are paired with practicing attorneys in their first year. The preceptors … serve as mentors and discuss all aspects of law school and the working world. Students then shadow the attorneys at their practices.” – The National Jurist, 2012
2. The Leadership Program
A nationally recognized program of excellence
The American Bar Association Standing Committee on Professionalism recognized Elon Law’s Leadership Program in 2013 with the E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award.
“In honoring your program with the leading national award recognizing excellence in legal professionalism programming, the Committee has found the Elon Leadership Program to be worthy of emulation by law schools across the nation.” – Frederick S. Ury, Chair, ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism
3. An emphasis on skills development and hands-on learning
In Elon Law’s new curriculim, starting in fall 2015, 100% of students will benefit from full-time residencies in the practice of law and immersive, team-based legal projects for nonprofits and government agencies. In addition, all students will benefit from in-depth encounters with accomplished attorneys through first-year lab courses and extended attorney shadowing in their law practices. All students will engage in bridge-to-practice courses, connecting theory to its practical application in areas of law that students intend to pursue following graduation. Elon Law students will benefit from practical experience gained in clinics, externships, clerkships and internships. Students practice advocacy skills through four law clinics, an in-depth trial practice program, a broad legal research and writing program, a nationally competitive moot court program, a new mock trial program and other legal skills development programs.
- Clinics
- Externships
- Litigation Skills Program
- Legal Method & Communication
- Moot Court
- Mock Trial
- Law Review
- Pro Bono
4. A personalized, supportive learning environment
- A 10 to 1 student/faculty ratio
- A majority of classes with fewer than 25 students
- An open door policy for students to meet individually with professors
- Each student’s legal success team is comprised of a student mentor, a faculty advisor, and executive leadership coach and a career development consultant.
- A strong commitment to diversity and global engagement
5. A pioneering approach to business training in legal education
Elon is one of five law schools profiled for “getting serious about business skills” in a 2013 National Law Journal special report on law schools.
“[Legal educators] are realizing that basic business and management skills would prove useful whether the student ends up counseling corporate clients, goes solo or works in a small nonprofit.” National Law Journal, Sept. 23, 2013
Elon is one of the few law schools in the country to house a working court, the North Carolina Business Court.
- Leadership Program
- JD/MBA
- Business Fellows
- Small Business Clinic
- Externships
- NC Business Court
- International Business Course with Study Abroad Component
6. An integrated approach to career and professional development
All first-year law students meet with executive leadership coaches to create Individual Development Plans.
Law students develop Personal Networking Plans with support from career development consultants, ensuring that students meet early and often with accomplished members of the legal profession during law school.
Each students’ legal success team provides guidance and support in building experiences and networks during law school that support skills development and professional success following law school.
7. A rigorous academic program taught by an outstanding faculty
Elon’s curriculum enables students to gain a breadth of knowledge across numerous areas of law and to develop depth in areas such as: business and commercial law, criminal law, constitutional law, public interest law and trial and appellate advocacy.
The faculty of Elon Law draw from an array of experience and activity to enrich student learning.
- 100 percent of Elon Law faculty have significant legal practice experience, with work experience reflected across 17 states, Washington, D.C. and seven countries
- Excellent educational backgrounds, with law degrees from schools including: Columbia, Harvard, New York University, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Stanford, Univ. of Michigan and Univ. of Virginia
- Innovative teachers, dedicated to student success, with more than 200 years of combined teaching experience
- Authors of scholarly books, treatises, casebooks and articles that are regularly published in highly regarded national law journals.
8. A vision to bridge the study and practice of law
Engaged learning is at the heart of Elon Law’s program of legal education. In addition to clinics, immersive work placements, the preceptor program and hands-on approaches to learning the law in the classroom, students network with attorneys, judges, elected officials and business leaders through a variety of programs offered at Elon Law, including recurring receptions with the legal community.
Students regularly interact with the law school’s distinguished advisory board, led by David Gergen, the former adviser to four U.S. presidents and CNN senior political analyst. Advisory board members include three former North Carolina Supreme Court chief justices, for which the law school’s national moot court competition is named, and a former president of the American Bar Association.
The law school’s growing alumni community is excelling in the profession, embracing leadership roles in society and supporting current students through networking and mentoring.
9. A part of the nation’s leader in engaged learning
Elon Law’s innovations in legal education reflect the values and strengths of Elon University. The University’s distinctions include:
Named the national “Leader in Engaged Learning” (Newsweek-Kaplan, 2010)
Ranked #1 overall among 124 Southern master’s-level universities (“America’s Best Colleges” U.S. News and World Report, 2014)
Named the nation’s #1 “best-run college” (The Princeton Review, 2013)
Named a national leader in service-learning and civic engagement for a seventh year (President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, 2013)
Chosen to shelter one of the newest chapters of the Phi Beta Kappa Society (2010)
10. A perfect location to study law
Downtown Greensboro is the hub of the judicial system in central North Carolina. Courts located within blocks of the law school include the U.S. District Court, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of North Carolina and several branches of the N.C. General Court of Justice. Numerous law firms of all sizes, corporations and municipal offices are located within blocks of the law school as well.
With a population of more than 270,000 and more than 40,000 students in higher education, Greensboro is a perfect place to study law, engage with the legal community and enjoy an urban lifestyle. Greensboro’s already thriving downtown district is in the midst of more than $200 million in major development projects, including a new $65 million performing arts centers, a $40 million downtown university center, a downtown greenway, a new park, a new hotel and several apartment complexes.