Mississippi College School of Law is an

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...

accredited law school. MC Law is one of only two law schools in the state of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, and is the only law school in the capital city of

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...

. The school is a professional school of

Mississippi College Mississippi College (MC) is a private Baptist university in Clinton, Mississippi. Founded in 1826, MC is the second-oldest Baptist-affiliated college or university in the United States and the oldest college or university in Mississippi. Histor ...

, founded in 1826. It is also colloquially referred to as MC Law, or MC Law School.

History

The law school was founded in 1930 as the Jackson School of Law. In 1975, the law school was acquired by

. In 1980, subsequent to the merger between Mississippi College and the law school, MC Law gained full ABA accreditation. MC Law is one of two law schools in the state of

, and the only law school in the capital, Jackson. MC Law is a member of the

Association of American Law Schools The Association of American Law Schools (AALS), formed in 1900, is a non-profit organization of 176 law schools in the United States. An additional 19 schools pay a fee to receive services but are not members. AALS incorporated as a 501(c)(3) n ...

(AALS). On May 15, 2020, the council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar met remotely and determined this school and nine others had significant noncompliance with Standard 316. This Standard was revised in 2019 to provide that at least 75% of an accredited law school’s graduates who took a bar exam must pass one within two years of graduation. The school was asked to submit a report by Feb. 1, 2021; and, if the council did not find the report demonstrated compliance, the school would be asked to appear before the council at its May, 2021 meeting. Compliance with the 75% standard had not been demonstrated by statistics released by the ABA at the end of April, 2021, which showed the college with a 73.83% pass rate for 2018 graduates, compared with 72.64% for 2017 graduates. However, the council found on May 18 that the college had demonstrated compliance based on data for 2019 graduates, for whom the pass rate was 79.2%.

Campus

The Mississippi College School of Law is located in the heart of the historic sector of downtown

, within walking distance of City Hall, the

Mississippi Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Mississippi is the highest court in the state of Mississippi. It was established in the first constitution of the state following its admission as a State of the Union in 1817 and was known as the High Court of Errors and App ...

, the Federal District Courts, the Governor’s Mansion, and a number of government and private law firm offices. In December 2005, MC Law completed a massive construction and renovation project, which more than doubled the size of the original campus. A new classroom building was added along with an auditorium building. The Law Library occupies three floors in the Law School’s West Wing, and contains one of the largest Mississippi collections of legal books, journals and microforms including statutes, court reports, digests, encyclopedias, treatises, loose-leaf services, periodicals and government documents. Beginning in 2013, the Law Library is also the repository of the Mississippi Legislature’s video archive footage. The main campus for

is located about 15 miles to the west in

Clinton, Mississippi Clinton is a city in Hinds County, Mississippi, United States. Situated in the Jackson metropolitan area, it is the tenth largest city in Mississippi. The population was 28,100 at the 2020 United States census. History Founded in 1823, Clint ...

Academics

The 2020 entering class had an enrollment of 150, with an

LSAT The Law School Admission Test (LSAT; ) is a standardized test administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) for prospective law school candidates. It is designed to assess reading comprehension as well as logical and verbal rea ...

median of 148 and a median GPA of 3.22. The average age at enrollment is 257. 59 colleges and universities are represented, along with 16 states. In addition to offering courses in common law, Mississippi College School of Law also offers a certificate in Louisiana Civil Law, which prepares the recipient for practice in the state of Louisiana by offering courses such as Successions and Donations, Obligations, Louisiana Civil Procedure, and Civil Law Property. MC Law is one of the only law schools to offer Civil Law training in addition to its

Common Law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...

curriculum. MC Law has more than 25 full-time faculty members in all major disciplines of law, with more than 20% of the faculty holding a PhD or equivalent degree, and more than 50% of the faculty with an LL.M. or Masters in a specialized field. The Law School provides a national certificate programs for Civil Law training, and hosts six centers, the ''Mississippi College Law Review'', and a Moot Court program. The Law School also offers an

externship Externships are experiential learning opportunities, similar to internships, provided by partnerships between educational institutions and employers to give students practical experiences in their field of study. In medicine, it may refer to a visi ...

program with more than 50 students at any one time placed in externships, and more than 85% of MC Law students completing an externship or working part-time in the legal field prior to graduation. In addition, since 2010, the Law School offers a one-year LL.M. degree in U.S. legal studies for students holding law degrees from foreign law programs. In 2020, MC Law students posted a bar passage statistic in the state of Mississippi of higher than 86% first time passage rate. In addition, each summer, MC Law offers students study abroad programs in France, Cuba, Germany, Mexico, and South Korea. MC Law was one of the first U.S. law schools to offer a program in Cuba.

Employment

According to MC Law's official 2019 ABA-required disclosures, 71.0% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment within nine months after graduation.

Costs

Fall/Spring (30 HRS.)
Tuition $33,370
Fees $1,640
Books & Supplies $1,500
Room & Board $12,375
Transportation $3,600
Personal/Misc. $4,050 Total $55,155

2020 entering class

*Enrollment : 150 *High LSAT : 168 *Median LSAT : 148 *GPA Median : 3.22 *Average Age : 25 *Women : 47% *Minorities : 20% *Out of State students : 51% *Undergraduate Schools Represented : 59

Notable alumni

Jenifer Branning Jenifer Burrage Branning (born March 13, 1979) is an American lawyer and politician. She serves as a Republican member of the Mississippi State Senate. Early life Jenifer Branning was born on March 13, 1979. Her family has lived in Neshoba Coun ...

, Republican member of the Mississippi State Senate. * Jennifer Riley Collins '99 - Executive Director of the Mississippi ACLU * Stephen Dillard ‘96 - Chief Judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals * Joey Fillingane '98 - Mississippi State Senator 2007–Present * Robert Hurt ’95 - United States House of Representatives for Virginia’s 5th District 2012–2017 * L. Joseph Lee '73 - Chief Judge of the Mississippi Court of Appeals from 2011-2018. *Rebecca Tedford Partington '86 - Deputy of the

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

Attorney General's Civil Rights Division (1996-2020) * Amy Tuck '89 - Lieutenant Governor, Mississippi * William F. Winter - Former Governor of Mississippi, honorary degree

References

External links

MC Law homepage
{{authority control Private universities and colleges in Mississippi Law schools in Mississippi Universities and colleges in the Jackson metropolitan area, Mississippi Mississippi College Education in Jackson, Mississippi 1930 establishments in Mississippi