Louis D. Brandeis School of Law
Understanding the value of a hands-on learning approach and the benefit of individualized attention, we provide our students with outstanding contemporary instruction combined with abundant and meaningful practical opportunities to enhance their skills and gain experiences both inside and outside of ordinary legal practice.
Personalized Attention
With a faculty-to-student ratio of 12.2-to-1, first year sections averaging between 20 to 60 students, and a total enrollment of under 400 students, Brandeis School of Law offers a welcoming atmosphere where students receive personal attention and an open-door policy from faculty, staff, and the Dean.
Everyday Learning through our Public Service Commitment
We are committed to training thoughtful, civic-minded lawyers who play active roles in their communities. Maintaining more than 130 placements, such as legal aid offices, public defender offices and government agencies, the Samuel L. Greenebaum Public Service Program offers students the chance to develop skills working with real clients and real legal issues. The Class of 2016 donated nearly 10,000 hours of public service.
Active Learning through our Externship Programs
With the goal to help our students transition from being in law school to being a lawyer, we provide a wide variety of field placement opportunities in major areas of law, including judicial externships, criminal justice externships, public interest externships and in-house counsel externships, for students to develop their lawyering skills and professional identity. Learn more.
Practical Learning through our Law Clinics
Through the Robert and Sue Ellen Ackerson Law Clinic, students work on real cases from inception to completion, working directly with clients, lawyers and judges. With our law students having helped more than 1,000 families in need since 2009, the clinic empowers students to become agents of change and helps them acquire valuable legal experience. Learn more.
We also added an Entrepreneurship Clinic during the spring semester of 2012 with an objective of providing law students with an experiential learning opportunity by providing legal support to the Entrepreneurship MBA program at UofL's College of Business. Not only does the clinic offer Brandeis students a unique real-life opportunity, it also aligns with Brandeis' interdisciplinary focus central to its mission. Learn more.
Distinguished Lectures and Continuing Legal Education Events
The Law School hosts two major lecture series each year — the Brandeis Medal and Lecture Series and the Boehl Distinguished Lecture Series in Land Use Policy — as well as a Labor and Employment Law Institute and Estate Planning Institute, bringing in national speakers from many different backgrounds and professions. Learn more.
Mission Statement
The University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law is a premiere small public law school with a mission to serve the public. Located just 3 miles south of Downtown Louisville, it is part of a large comprehensive research university with a state legislative mandate to be a nationally preeminent metropolitan research university. The Law School is guided by the vision of its benefactor and namesake, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, to:
- Educate students in skills, knowledge and values for lifelong effectiveness in solving problems and seeking justice by giving them outstanding opportunities to:
- Develop knowledge of the basic principles of public and private law;
- Develop effective skills of legal analysis and written communication, legal research, conflict resolution, problem solving and other fundamental skills;
- Understand diverse perspectives that influence and are influenced by the law and its institutions, through a diverse faculty and student body, and through legal research and scholarship;
- Understand their ethical responsibilities as representatives of clients, as officers of the court and as public citizens responsible for the quality and availability of justice;
- Produce and support research that has a high level of impact on scholarship, law, public policy and/or social institutions;
- Develop and pursue interdisciplinary inquiry;
- Actively engage the community in addressing public problems, resolving conflicts, seeking justice, and building a vibrant and sustainable future through high-quality research and innovative ideas, and application of research to solve public problems and serve the public;
- Actively engage diverse participants in an academic community of students, faculty and staff that is strengthened by its diversity and its commitment to social justice, opportunity, sustainability and mutual respect; and
- Develop and use resources efficiently, effectively and sustainably to achieve mission-critical goals and strategies and to ensure student access to relatively affordable legal education.
