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Chicago-Kent’s Program in Criminal Litigation is designed to give students a comprehensive and balanced professional education to prepare them adequately for the practice of criminal law. The program will help students who earn the certificate to compete successfully for one of the limited number of defender or prosecutor jobs that are available in the Chicago area. In addition, the certificate program represents an opportunity to synthesize the goals of Chicago-Kent’s academic program in criminal law with those of Trial Advocacy and the Law Offices.
Required courses – 24 credits
Criminal Procedure: The Investigatory Process – 3 credits*
Criminal Procedure: The Adjudicatory Process – 3 credits***
Criminal Defense Clinic I – 3 credits*
Evidence – 3 credits*
Trial Advocacy I – 3 credits (can be satisfied by Intensive Trial Ad)**
Criminal Litigation – 3 credits (would substitute for Legal Writing 4)**
Legal Externship – 4 credits (criminal prosecution or defense)****
Criminal Law Seminar – 2 credits (would satisfy the seminar requirement)****
*These courses must be completed in the fall semester of the second year (the student’s third semester) or in the summer semester preceding the third semester.
** These courses must be completed in the spring semester of the second year (the student’s fourth semester) or earlier in the case of Trial Ad I.
*** This course may be completed in the spring semester of the second year or in either semester of the third year (the student’s fourth, fifth or sixth semesters).
**** These courses may be completed in either semester of the third year (the student’s fifth or sixth semesters). This could include seminars in criminal law, procedure or ethics.
Elective courses
Students can obtain a certificate without taking any of these elective courses. Taking the courses recommended by the faculty as well as electing courses from other subject areas is necessary for a well-rounded legal education.
Advanced Criminal Law – 3 credits
Advanced Evidence – 3 credits
Ethical Issues in Criminal Litigation – 2 or 3 credits
Federal Criminal Law (or White-Collar Crime) – 2 or 3 credits
Forensic Sciences – 2 credits
Juvenile Law – 3 credits
Trial Advocacy II – 3 credits
A student must take 87 credits to graduate. Of these, 36 credits are required courses: 30 credits in his/her first year plus Constitutional Law and Professional Responsibility. The remaining required courses—Legal Writing 4 and a seminar—are part of the certificate program. (Legal Writing 4 is satisfied by the Criminal Litigation course and the seminar requirement by a seminar focusing on a criminal law topic.) After meeting the requirement for the certificate program (24 credits), a student can take 27 credits of elective courses to meet the 87 credits required for graduation.
Sample course schedule
Fall semester of the second year (14 credits):
- Constitutional Law – 4 credits
- Criminal Procedure: The Investigatory Process – 3 credits
- Evidence – 3 credits
- Criminal Defense Clinic – 3 credits
- Legal Writing 3 – 1 credit
In recent years, Evidence and Criminal Procedure: The Investigatory Process have been offered in the summer session, so some students in the program can get a head start by taking one or both of those courses in the summer after their first year.
Spring semester of the second year (13–16 credits):
- Criminal Procedure: The Adjudicatory Process – 3 credits
- Trial Advocacy I – 3 credits (Can be satisfied by Intensive Trial Ad)
- Criminal Litigation – 3 credits
- Electives – 4 to 6 credits
Students could satisfy the Trial Advocacy I requirement by completing Intensive Trial Ad without having to enroll in Trial Advocacy II. Intensive Trial Ad is offered in the summer one week before the beginning of the fall semester and in January one week before the beginning of the spring semester. If certificate students in the program take Intensive Trial Ad, they would have three additional elective credits in the spring semester of their second year.
Fall semester of the third year (13–16 credits):
- Legal Externship – 4 credits (criminal prosecution or defense)
- Electives – 9 to 12 credits
Spring semester of the third year (13–16 credits):
- Criminal Law Seminar – 2 credits
- Professional Responsibility – 2 credits
- Electives – 9 to 12 credits
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