The Southern University Law Centers offers legal training to students in pursuit of the Juris Doctor degree. The Law Center shares with other American Bar Association-accredited institutions the goals of producing attorneys who are well prepared for entry into the legal profession. In the design and implementation of a curriculum to attain this goal, the Law Center, like the other Louisiana law schools, has given particular attention to the Civil Law. Of the four state schools, the Law Center retains the highest number of required course hours (96) in Civil Law and Louisiana subjects.

The Law Center's unique mission and circumstances have created distinctive curriculum challenges. While the Law Center maintains curriculum objectives similar to those of other J.D. programs, with a special emphasis given to the Louisiana practice, it serves a student population, which is more diverse in racial, socioeconomic, and educational backgrounds than most law schools throughout the United States.

Greater flexibility for students pursuing law studies is provided in the Law Center's offering through part-time day and part-time evening divisions, in addition to the full-time program.

Full-time Division

The majority of students are enrolled in the full-time program for the J.D. degree, which is designed to be completed in three years. The 96-hour curriculum includes required courses and electives to prepare graduates for the competitive field of law. Students may take up to four years to complete this program.

The Law Center offers a limited number of courses during a seven-week summer session. Students are normally allowed to take a maximum course load of eight credit hours. Summer classes usually meet in mid-morning and early afternoon and are scheduled on a daily basis. Students desiring to enroll in summer school must register with the Registrar's office by JAGCALL or JAGNET during the spring semester. Study undertaken in the summer session does not count toward the satisfaction of residency requirements.

First year students must have a cumulative GPA of 2.0 at the end of the first year in order to attend Summer School.

Students desiring to attend the summer session must enroll in no less than four (4) credit hours in order to be eligible for financial aid.

Third year students may enroll in the clinical education program.

Part-time Day Division

For those earnest about embarking on legal studies and find that they must combine school and full-time personal obligations, the Southern University Law Center offers a part-time day program. Admission is granted to a selected number of qualified applicants not to exceed 20 percent of the total enrollment of the first year class.

Part-time students must enroll for at least eight credit hours per semester to receive residence credit. The program of study requires a minimum of eight regular semesters in residence.

Part-time Evening Division

The Law Center enrolled its first students in a new part-time evening program in the fall semester of 2004. Students matriculating in the part-time evening program should be able to complete the program in four years with attendance in summer sessions or four-and-a-half to five years without attendance in summer sessions. Students admitted to the Evening Program for Fall 2006 must complete forty eight (48) hours of course work before transferring to the Full-Time Day Program.

Classes are scheduled to meet from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday. A three-day weekend is conveniently allowed for study time. Full-time faculty members will teach in the day and evening program on a rotating semester basis. As customary for the full-time program, the Law Center will also draw on the rich resources of practitioners in the Baton Rouge legal community to teach specialty electives will be available to part-time evening students after their first year.

All resources, instructional and academic support, such as legal writing program, clinical education, and the academic assistance programs, will have extended hour to accommodate students in the evening program. Additionally, administrative services pertaining to registration, financial aid, career counseling and development will also be available in evening hours.