LLM/MJ in Individualized Legal Studies Curriculum

The Business Law Concentration allows students to focus their studies in the corporate, tax, and commercial law areas.

Today the United States remains the world’s dominant economy as globalization has opened new markets and created unprecedented business opportunities. For both American and international students, the market for lawyers schooled in U.S. business law and practices continues to expand.

Courses that may be used to satisfy this concentration’s requirements:

• Bankruptcy and Debt Collection
• Business & Corporate Law: Seminar on Current Issues
• Business Associations
• Business Taxation
• Compliance and Risk Management
• Contract Drafting
• Federal Income Tax
• Insurance Law
• Intellectual Property - Intro
• International Trade
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Real Estate Transactions
• Sales
• Secured Transactions
• Securities Regulation Law

Download the LLM/MJ in Business Law Graduation Checklist.

Required courses for this concentration

• Criminal Law
• Criminal Procedure - Investigation
• Criminal Procedure - Adjudication

Elective Courses

• Constitutional Litigation
• Domestic Violence
• Federal Criminal Law
• Federal Sentencing Law and Practice
• Fundamentals of Legal Investigation
• Global Issues in Criminal Law
• Intoxicated Driving Law and Practice
• Laws of War
• National Security Law
• Prosecution and Defense
• Psychiatry and the Law
• Scientific and Expert Evidence

Download the LLM/MJ in Criminal Law Graduation Checklist.

The International Law and Global Citizenship concentration examines the roles that nations, individuals, international organizations, and the rule of law play in the realization of human rights.

The post-World War II era has witnessed a proliferation of international human rights norms. These rights norms have evolved in a way that promotes not just the political rights with which Americans are familiar, such as the rights to free speech and a free press. Instead, they also involve guarantees related to social and economic well-being that transcend the traditional rights discussion. These include the rights to health care, education, and human dignity.

Courses that may be used to satisfy this concentration’s requirements

• Comparative Constitutional Law
• International Human Rights
• International Intellectual Property
• International Trade
• International Law - Intro
• Independent Research (as approved by the program director)

Download LLM/MJ in International Law and Global Citizenship Graduation Checklist.

Subject to waiver by the program director, a candidate for the MJ in Individualized Legal Studies shall write a paper of 2-4 credit hours under the supervision of a full-time member of the Drake law faculty.

With the permission of the supervising professor, the MJ written project requirement can be satisfied by a paper or written project completed for any course within the MJ curriculum.

Minimum standards for the paper:

• The paper must be a written project of sufficient quality and suitably documented for a project of its type to be deemed of professional quality by the supervising professor.
• The project must be at least 35 pages long, double-spaced on 8 ½” x 11” paper, including any footnotes.
• The project must involve submission of a draft to the supervising professor, with the requirement of a rewrite at the option of that professor.

Clinic Internship Requirements
Subject to waiver by the program director, a candidate for the MJ degree is required to satisfy an experiential training requirement by participating in one of the law school’s clinics or internship programs.

Credit vs. Compensation
The internship experiences which may qualify for the Experiential Training Requirement are sometimes done for academic credit and sometimes done for compensation.

Accreditation rules do not permit a candidate to earn academic credit for work for which the candidate is compensated (i.e. paid internships). However, with the program director’s approval, a candidate can satisfy the experiential training requirement in a paid internship, although the internship will not count toward the required 24 semester hours of Individualized Legal Studies course work.

Unless the program director grants a waiver, LLM candidates who do not have a basic or an advanced law degree in a common law jurisdiction and all MJ candidates must complete:

• Foundations of Law
• Legal Writing and/or Legal Research

For more information, see Drake Law School's course descriptions.