Certificate Program

To earn a Certificate in Public Interest Law, a student must complete the 86 semester hours required for the Juris Doctor (JD) degree and satisfy all JD requirements. Within the elective coursework required for the JD, a student must complete 15 credit hours from the approved list of public interest law courses with a minimum GPA of 3.00 in those courses.* If a student takes more than the five courses required for the certificate, all public interest law courses factor into the final GPA. All courses are worth three credit hours each unless otherwise noted. Certificate courses may not be audited.

Students must take three courses from any of the following:

Legal Aid

• Asylum & Refugee Law & Policy
• Child Protection: Abuse & Neglect
• Community Economic Development
• Consumer Protection
• Disability Law
• Domestic Violence
• Elder Law
• Employment Discrimination
• Housing Law
• Immigration Law & Policy
• Individual Employment Rights
• Mental Health Law
• Poverty Law
• Predatory Lending
• School Law
• Seminar: Children & the Law
• Seminar: Legal Issues of AIDS
• Seminar: Special Education
• Street Law

Criminal Law

• Advanced Criminal Procedure: Pretrial
• Advanced Criminal Procedure: Trial
• Evidence
• Federal Criminal Law
• Federal Habeas Corpus Practicum
• Forensic Evidence & the Law
• Illinois Criminal Law
• Juvenile Justice
• Mental Health Issues in Criminal Law

Civil Rights & Public Policy

• Animal Law
• Civil Rights
• Complex Civil Litigation
• Constitutional Law: State
• Constitutional Torts and Section 1983
• Critical Race Theory
• Economic Justice
• Environmental Law
• Feminist Jurisprudence
• First Amendment Freedoms: Speech
• International Protection of Human Rights I & II
• Labor Law
• Labor Relations: Public Sector
• Nonprofit Organizations
• Public Health Law
• Public International Law
• Race, Law & Medicine
• Seminar: Race, Racism
• Sexuality, Sexual Orientation & the Law
• When Justice Fails

Service in Public Interest Law

Students must satisfy both of the following service learning experiences:

• One semester in a public service-oriented clinical or field placement program
• 50 hours of service through the Pro Bono Community Service Initiative

Foundations of Public Interest Law

Students must take at least one of the following courses:

• Administrative Process
• Civil Rights
• Criminal Procedure
• Federal Courts
• First Amendment: Freedom of Speech
• First Amendment: Freedom of Religion
• Legislative Process

* For the most current course list, please visit law.depaul.edu.