The University and the College of Law

The College of Law at Loyola University New Orleans educates future members of the Bar to be skilled advocates and sensitive counselors-at-law committed to ethical norms and the pursuit of human dignity for all.

Loyola University New Orleans is a Jesuit university founded in 1912 by the Society of Jesus. All educational programs and activities are open to all qualified persons without regard to age, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex/gender, or sexual orientation. Loyola admitted its first woman law student in 1918 and its first African-American law students in 1952.

Loyola is a medium-sized, comprehensive university with a total enrollment of 5,900 students comprised of 3,800 undergraduate students, 850 law school students, and 2,000 graduate students and students in other classifications. The faculty numbers 300 full-time and 200 part-time. The law faculty includes 33 full-time members and an adjunct faculty composed of judges and practitioners. Loyola’s student body is geographically diverse. Students represent all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 62 foreign countries, representing a wide range of ethnic, social, and economic backgrounds. The law school student body includes students from 38 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and 10 foreign countries.

Loyola has two campuses located in a residential area of New Orleans known as the university section. Fronting on tree-lined St. Charles Avenue where streetcars are the mode of public transportation, Loyola’s main campus faces Audubon Park across the avenue. The 20-acre campus is a collection of Tudor-Gothic buildings and modern architecture. Two blocks farther up St. Charles Avenue is the four-acre Broadway campus, the home of the College of Law.

The College of Law operates both a day program for full-time students and an evening program for part-time students. The day program offers curricula in civil law for students who will practice law in Louisiana and in common law for students who will practice in other states. The evening program offers only the civil law curriculum.

Students of the College of Law issue four academic publications, the Loyola Law Review, the Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law, the Loyola Maritime Law Journal, and the Law and Technology Annual. Students also have the opportunity to participate in the Law Clinic where they, under the supervision of the clinic faculty, provide legal services to clients who are unable to afford representation. Additionally, students are required to participate in the College of Law’s skills curriculum, a program designed to foster the practical skills integral to the effective practice of law.

The College of Law participates in five joint juris doctor/master’s degree programs. Three of these programs are offered in conjunction with other colleges of Loyola University, and the other two are offered in conjunction with colleges of the University of New Orleans. In each of these programs, each participating institution accepts a limited number of hours earned at the other, and the total number of hours required in each program is reduced correspondingly. The joint degree programs are in business administration, religious studies, mass communications, urban and regional planning, and public administration.

The College of Law is home to the Gillis W. Long Poverty Law Center, a foundation devoted to the assistance of the poor. The center is named in memory of the late Louisiana congressman who demonstrated great concern for the disadvantaged.

Additionally, the College of Law, in keeping with its civil law tradition and a growing international emphasis, conducts summer sessions abroad in cooperation with prominent foreign law schools. The curriculum emphasizes comparative law, international law, and the legal systems of the host countries.

The College of Law is a member of the Association of American Law Schools and is approved by the American Bar Association. It also is approved by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.

Loyola University New Orleans is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, GA 30033 (404) 679-4500, to award bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral (juris doctor) degrees.