DePaul University College of Law

DePaul University College of Law
Parent schoolDePaul University
Religious affiliationRoman Catholic
Vincentian
Established1912 (formed by merger with the Illinois College of Law, 1897)
School typePrivate law school
DeanGeoffrey Christopher Rapp
LocationChicago, Illinois, US
Enrollment2025 J.D. enrollment (495)
Faculty137 (36 full-time; 101 part-time)
USNWR ranking133rd (tie) (2025)[1]
Bar pass rate75% (2023 First-time takers)[2]
Websitelaw.depaul.edu

DePaul University College of Law is the law school affiliated with DePaul University, a private Vincentian research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 38 full-time and 102 part-time faculty members and enrolls nearly 500 students in its Juris Doctor program.[3] The school has multiple joint degree programs offered in conjunction with other DePaul University colleges and schools.

The law school is primarily located in the Lewis Center and includes the Vincent G. Rinn Law Library, Leonard M. Ring Courtroom, technology-enabled classrooms, two student lounges, and student offices and meeting spaces. The law school is located within two blocks of state and federal courts and is close to numerous law firms, corporations and government agencies.

History

The College of Law dates back to 1897 when Howard N. Ogden founded the Illinois College of Law.[4] It was one of the first law schools to offer evening classes.[5]

DePaul University acquired the Illinois College of Law in 1912. This purchase benefited both institutions and saw the law school's enrollment double to approximately 400 students. Ogden stayed on as the College of Law's dean, and he became the first non-Catholic trustee of the University. Three years later, upon Ogden's death, DePaul obtained full ownership of the law school.

Originally housed at 64 East Lake Street, DePaul Law moved to its current home in the Lewis Center at 25 East Jackson Boulevard in 1958. Formerly known as the Kimball Building, it was gifted to DePaul in 1955 by the Frank J. Lewis Foundation. At that time, it was the largest gift ever received by the University.[6]

In 1972, DePaul purchased the Finchley Building next door and later renamed it Comerford J. O'Malley Place (commonly known as "O'Malley Place") in honor of the former president and chancellor of DePaul. Also that year, DePaul Law opened its first legal clinic.[7]

Statistics

Student body

The incoming class in 2025 was 158 full-time students and 29 part-time students. The median LSAT score was 158 and the median undergraduate GPA was 3.61.[8]

Rankings

In 2025, U.S. News & World Report ranked the College of Law as the 133rd in the Best Law Schools list of 196 schools.[9] The College of Law's Health Care Law program was ranked as the 26th best in the country.[10] The Part-Time Program was ranked 34th out of 68 schools.[11]

Degree Programs

The College of Law offers a J.D. degree; LL.M degrees in Health Law, Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology, International Law, and U.S. Legal Studies;[12] and a Master of Legal Studies degree.[13] In additional to the College of Law-specific programs, the school offers a variety of dual-degree programs:[14]

Experiential Learning

The College of Law offers numerous legal clinics which allow students to assist clients who are facing real legal issues. Available to second- and third-year students, the law school offers eight in-house and field clinics.[15]

  • Asylum & Immigration Law
  • Business Law
  • Civil Litigation & Health Law
  • Criminal Appeals
  • Croak Community Legal Clinic
  • Family Law
  • International Human Rights Law
  • Technology/Intellectual Property

Moot Court Society and National Trial Team

The College of Law's Moot Court Society and National Trial Team enable students to participate in competitions across the country. In 2022, the National Trial Team was named Regional Champions[16] at the American Association for Justice's Student Trial Advocacy Competition, and they placed fifth at Nationals. Also in 2022, the Moot Court team won second place overall at the Chicago Bar Association's Moot Court Competition[17] and its students received Best Oralist and Second Best Oralist awards.

The College of Law also sponsors the Honorable William J. Bauer Moot Court Competition, an annual intramural appellate competition in which student teams analyze and brief a hypothetical appellate problem and argue the case before practicing attorneys and judges.

Publications

Law Journals

The college of Law publishes five student-edited law journals:

  • DePaul Law Review[18] The Law Review is the College of Law's flagship law review and its oldest and largest journal and was first published in 1951.[19] It publishes four times a year. The Law Review also hosts a symposium during the spring semester on a variety of topics. Past topics include the power of legal storytelling and cyber regulation.[20]
  • DePaul Business and Commercial Law Journal
  • DePaul Journal of Art, Technology & Intellectual Property Law
  • DePaul Journal of Health Care Law
  • DePaul Journal for Social Justice

Notable alumni

The following are some of DePaul Law's notable alumni.

Notable faculty

Current

  • Roberta Kwall is the Raymond P. Niro Professor at DePaul Law; the founder of the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology at DePaul Law; and the author of several books, including Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World (2020) and The Soul of Creativity (2010).

Former

  • Susan Bandes is emeritus centennial distinguished professor of law at DePaul and author of The Passions of Law (2000). She is one of the most widely cited professors in criminal law and procedure and is one of the founders of the field of Law and Emotion.
  • M. Cherif Bassiouni was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 for his work on behalf of the International Criminal Court. In 2007, he was awarded the Hague Prize for International Law for his "distinguished contribution in the field of international law". He served as the president of DePaul's International Human Rights Law Institute.
  • Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. At DePaul, he taught courses in administrative law, constitutional law, federal courts, and law and the mass media.
  • Clarence Darrow, a criminal defense attorney known for the Scopes Trial and the Leopold and Loeb case, among others, was an early adjunct professor at DePaul Law.
  • James Fleissner served as deputy to Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald in the Justice Department investigation into allegations that one or more government officials illegally disclosed the identity of a CIA agent.

References

  1. ^ "Best Law Schools – DePaul University". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved April 8, 2025.
  2. ^ "DePaul University College of Law - 2023 Bar Passage". abarequireddisclosures.org. American Bar Association. Retrieved 22 February 2025.
  3. ^ 2025-2026 Enrollment Statistics; https://law.depaul.edu/admission/jd-admission/enrollment-statistics
  4. ^ "History | About | College of Law | DePaul University, Chicago".
  5. ^ "DePaul University Library". www.lib.depaul.edu. Archived from the original on 2008-08-28. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  6. ^ "DePaul University Library". www.lib.depaul.edu. Archived from the original on 2008-08-28. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  7. ^ "DePaul University Library". www.lib.depaul.edu. Archived from the original on 2007-03-11. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  8. ^ 2025-2026 Enrollment Statistics; https://law.depaul.edu/admission/jd-admission/enrollment-statistics
  9. ^ https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/depaul-university-03045
  10. ^ https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/depaul-university-03045
  11. ^ https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/depaul-university-03045
  12. ^ https://law.depaul.edu/academics/llm-programs
  13. ^ https://law.depaul.edu/academics/mls-program
  14. ^ https://law.depaul.edu/academics/jd-program/jd-joint-degree
  15. ^ https://law.depaul.edu/academics/experiential-learning/legal-clinics
  16. ^ "News | About | College of Law | DePaul University, Chicago".
  17. ^ "Moot Court Competition Results".
  18. ^ https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review/
  19. ^ https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review/about.html
  20. ^ https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review/symposia.html
  21. ^ "The Korshak Chronicles". www.richsamuels.com. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  22. ^ "Seattle News and Events | News". Seattle Weekly. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2015-06-09.

41°52′41″N 87°37′36″W / 41.8780°N 87.6266°W / 41.8780; -87.6266

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