Indiana University Maurer School of Law

History and Background

Founded in 1842, the Indiana University Maurer School of Law is one of the oldest law schools in the nation. The school is located on the southwest corner of the Indiana University Bloomington campus, which puts it in the center of Bloomington. The school maintains significant alumni bases in Indianapolis, Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York.

Since its founding, IU Maurer has produced many notable alumni, including a Justice of the Supreme Court, numerous state supreme court justices and federal appellate and district court judges. The school has one of the largest academic law libraries in the United States with more than 450,000 volumes, and a beautiful location for academic study referred to by students and faculty as The Pit. Recent enhancements to the library include increased seating and study space, improved "green" lighting systems, and an online institutional repository. The library was ranked third in the country by National Jurist Magazine in March 2010.

IU Maurer is home of the Center on the Global Legal Profession, which conducts empirical research on the profession. This research helps inform the curriculum, with the goal of producing prepared, ethical, and educated lawyers for today's competitive world. As part of the enhanced curriculum, all first-year students are enrolled in a four-hour course on the legal profession, which examines not only the ethical responsibilities of the profession, but also the many career options that a law degree offers. The course also includes Career Choices, a series of sessions with alumni and other practitioners from a variety of settings, which exposes students to career options early in their law school experience.

Employment

According to the school's ABA-required disclosures, 80.1% of the Class of 2013 had obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. The comparable percentage for the Class of 2012 was 64.7%.

Costs

The total cost of attendance (indicating the cost of tuition, fees, and living expenses) at IU Maurer for the 2014-2015 academic year is $54,233 for an in-state resident, and $73,039 for a non-Indiana resident.

Academic reputation

In its 2016 rankings report (rankings for 2015), U.S. News & World Report ranked the IU Maurer School of Law 25th among the nation's "Top 100 Law Schools". The school previously ranked 25th in the 2014 publication (rankings for 2013) and 26th in the 2013 publication (rankings for 2012). The law school typically ranks among top 10 public law schools in the U.S., according to U.S. News.

Admissions

More than 1,800 people applied to join the 2014 fall entering class, with 184 matriculating. The 25th and 75th LSAT percentiles for the 2014 entering class were 154 and 163, respectively, with a median of 161. The 25th and 75th undergraduate GPA percentiles were 3.32 and 3.88, respectively, with a median of 3.72.

For the 2014 entering J.D. class, 63% percent of the incoming class was from outside Indiana, 39% were women, and 29% were minorities. The school has no part-time or evening program; all students are full-time.

Degrees offered

The Juris Doctor (JD) degree is offered. The school also partners with Jindal Global Law School in New Delhi, India, Sungkyunkwan University GSB in Seoul, Korea, and with the University of Oxford's Oxford Internet Institute.

Clinics and externships

Competitions and student organizations

Students compete in several competitions, including Sherman Minton Moot Court Competition, Jessup International Moot Court Competition, Trial Practice Competition, and Negotiations Competition. IU Maurer has more than 30 student organizations, including Intellectual Property Association, International Law Society, and Public Interest Law Foundation. Local chapters of national organizations include the American Constitution Society, Federalist Society for Law and Public Studies, and American Bar Association Law Student Division.

Publications

Centers

Center for Constitutional Democracy (CCD)seeks to study and promote constitutional democracy in countries marked by ethnic, religious, linguistic, and other divisions. Founded and directed by John S. Hastings Professor of Law David Williams, the CCD focuses its work in Burma, Liberia, South Sudan, and Libya, training the reform leaders of these countries in constitutionalism, parliamentary process, and legal ordering. The Center focuses its efforts on the constitutional aspects of democratic reform, enabling plural societies to peaceably provide meaningful self-governance to all their citizens. The CCD is the only educational institution in the United States that offers students the chance to work directly and regularly with foreign reform leaders to support constitutional democracy.

Center for Law, Society, and Culture The fundamental mission of the Center for Law, Society, and Culture is to promote and disseminate a multidisciplinary understanding of law through scholarship, teaching, and discussion. The Center produces, presents, and coordinates research conducted by exceptional scholars in schools and departments across Indiana University on the subject of law and legal problems. The Center supports research related to the law in a broad sense, including cultural aspects of law expressed through political theory and the humanities, and scientific aspects of law expressed through technological advance in biotechnology, environmental science, and information technology.

Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research The center draws on Indiana University's wide range of scholarly expertise in computer science, informatics, accounting and information systems, criminal justice, law, organizational behavior, public policy, and related disciplines. Recently, the National Security Agency designated the center a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education.

Center on the Global Legal Profession Forces of globalization, politics and the economy create enormous challenges and opportunities for lawyers, clients, policymakers, law schools and the public. The Center on the Global Legal Profession focuses on the role of lawyers in society, the business of lawyering, and the organizational context housing legal practice. The Center's faculty and fellows examine these issues through the lens of empirical research, using original and existing data and utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methodology.

The Law School's Milton Stewart Fellows are selected in a competitive process each year for internships in India, South Korea, and Brazil under the direction of the Center on the Global Legal Profession. The school also engages in collaborative and study abroad programs with schools of law in China, South Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, and Poland.

Center for Intellectual Property Research supports study in all aspects of intellectual property law and allied fields including patent, trademark, unfair competition, copyright and information policy.

The mission of the Center for Law, Ethics, and Applied Research (CLEAR) in Health Information is to address the ethical, policy, and social issues necessary to enhancing the availability of health information to facilitate treatment and research and improve health outcomes for patients.

Faculty

Maurer School of Law faculty include former Supreme Court clerks, practicing attorneys from some of the nation's top firms, former U.S. government administrators and legal consultants, and visiting professors from around the world. Drawing on their varied experiences and in close collaboration with one another, IU Maurer faculty members consistently produce work that has a tangible impact on the legal profession.

In addition to the current faculty, IU Maurer has been honored by the teaching and scholarship of distinguished professors throughout its history. Some of them are:

Notable alumni

IU Maurer counts among its alumni many distinguished leaders in politics, public service, and the judiciary: