The College of Law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln offers a program of legal education designed to prepare its students to meet the diverse and complex challenges they will confront during their professional careers. In the relatively intimate environment of a small law school, students prepare themselves for the practice of law or other professional careers. The experiences of College of Law alumni illustrate the range of opportunities available and the strength of the educational programs of the College.

The College of Law was formed in 1888 and became a part of the University of Nebraska in 1891. It was among the first schools fully accredited by the American Bar Association and was a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools. One of its early deans, native Nebraskan Roscoe Pound, subsequently served as Dean of the Harvard Law School and earned a reputation as one of the foremost legal scholars and educators in legal education.

From Dean Pound’s tenure to the present, the College of Law has been the professional home of an energetic and nationally recognized faculty. The current professors are strongly committed to both good teaching and active scholarship. Not only do students have the opportunity to take classes from experts who are exploring the frontiers of their specialties, but in the informal atmosphere of the College, students have easy access to faculty members outside of the classroom.

The College is committed to an educational program designed to permit students to pursue their individual interests within the context of a sound foundation in law and legal process. Most graduates of the College engage in some aspect of the legal profession. This requires not only a grounding in substantive and procedural law, but also the capacity for intellectual rigor and analysis and a background in human affairs upon which to draw in making professional judgments. The curriculum at the College is designed to provide the student with an opportunity to acquire professional knowledge and skill.

A number of graduates from major law schools, including Nebraska, do not ultimately enter the private practice of law, but engage in careers for which their legal education provides a significant advantage, such as business administration, journalism, and government service. The College offers a flexible curriculum in order to accommodate the widely differing goals of its student body. Few courses are required after the first-year program. Students are permitted to take some graduate-level courses in other disciplines within the University for law school credit. In addition to a number of joint degree programs with other colleges at the University, the College of Law is willing to structure joint degree programs on an individual basis for students interested in pursuing interdisciplinary work.

Located on the University’s East Campus, the College of Law offers the best in modern facilities, including an appellate courtroom, offices for student activities, an extensive library and student lounges.

The Sherman S. Welpton Jr. Courtroom contains a fully equipped trial courtroom complete with a jury room, conference room, judge’s chambers, and a law office classroom, as well as the College’s clinical education program. This facility enables the College of Law to continue its tradition of offering the finest in practical skills training.

The student body, composed of approximately 400 students, includes graduates of over 100 colleges and universities. Our students are ambitious, diligent, and able individuals with diverse interests and talents. Women now constitute approximately 50 percent of the total student body and minority students about 15 percent.

The success of any program of legal education is measured in the accomplishments of its alumni. Throughout the history of the College, its graduates have made their mark in many different fields throughout the United States. More than 60 percent of the lawyers and judges practicing in Nebraska are alumni of the College; outside of the Omaha metropolitan area the figure is 80 percent. Nebraska alumni can be found in sophisticated major law firms and smaller, more specialized firms in almost every large metropolitan area in the country from Wall Street to Los Angeles, and from Minneapolis to Dallas. Illustratively, Nebraska alumni have served as Chief Justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, as Governor of Nebraska and Wyoming, as Attorney General of Nebraska and California, as Solicitor General of the United States, as federal and state judge at the District and Courts of Appeals levels, in the Senate and House of Representatives, as chair of federal administrative agencies, and as Special Assistant to the President of the United States.

The College continues to build on this tradition of excellence and is recognized as one of the major law schools in the midwest.

[edit] Schmid Law Library

The Marvin and Virginia Schmid Law Library provides an excellent atmosphere for study and research. The library is the largest law library in the State. Within the Library is the Great Plains Tax Library, which contains the materials necessary for in-depth tax research. The Library is also a selected depository for United States government publications. Equipment and facilities are available for using microforms, audio and video materials, CD-ROM network, the Internet, and the LEXIS and WESTLAW computerized research systems. Law students have access to personal computers and printers in the computer laboratory.

The Schmid Law Library and the University Libraries share an online catalog named IRIS. IRIS contains bibliographic records for most catalogued materials located in the libraries. Library users can look up this information using computer terminals instead of using the traditional card catalog.

The Library is independent in administration and organization from the other libraries on campus, but its resources are supplemented through interlibrary loans and other cooperative programs with the University of Nebraska Libraries and the major public, academic, and legal collections in the country.

[edit] Admission to the College of Law

Because the number of applications far exceeds the number of places in each year’s entering class, the College can accept only a fraction of those who apply.

In making its decisions, the Committee seeks to identify those individuals who have the ability to compete successfully in a rigorous academic environment.

The major factors that the Admissions Committee considers are the applicant’s score on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and the applicant’s undergraduate grade point average. But that is not to say that admission decisions are simply a function of the numbers.

The Committee also takes into account any upward (or downward) trend in the applicant’s academic performance over time and considers the quality of the applicant’s undergraduate institution, course of study, personal statement, work experiences, graduate study, extracurricular activities, letters of recommendation, and any other information supplied by the applicant.

Although a majority of the students at the College of Law are residents of Nebraska, the College welcomes applications from students who are not residents of Nebraska. The College takes special care in evaluating applications from members of minority groups that historically have not been well-represented in the legal profession. The College also hosts a summer Pre-Law Institute for promising undergraduates who, if they choose law, would diversify the profession.

With the exception of those who are applying for admission pursuant to the Combined 3-3 Program, applicants ordinarily must have a bachelor’s degree or must have completed all requirements for a bachelor’s degree before they begin their first year of study at the College of Law. For further information on the application process, please contact the College of Law Admission Office.