Law School Course Registration
First-Year J.D. Students
First-year J.D. students are enrolled in courses by section. Sections are assigned by the Law School Registrar. Students are notified of their section assignment and are enrolled in their courses before Orientation. First-year students are not permitted to change assigned sections, course schedules, or course sequencing. During their second, Spring, term, 1Ls will select an elective along with their required 1L courses. This elective excludes seminars, NY Tech streamed courses, and clinics (with the exception of the 1L Immigration Clinic). The elective cannot conflict with any required 1L courses and must be taken for a letter grade.
Course Selection for Second- and Third-Year J.D. Students, General LL.M. Students, and Exchange Students
Pre-registration enrollment at Cornell Law School generally takes place in May/June for the fall semester and October for the spring semester. Dates are announced in advance and are published in the weekly newsletter, Scoops, on the student registration site: and by email. Upper-level students are able to check the status of the satisfaction of degree requirements prior to each semester’s registration by using the online Degree Audit page under My Information. Students are also provided with detailed information about the course offerings and registration procedures, including procedures for enrollment in seminars. Course enrollment may be limited by classroom capacity or by instructor choice.
Course Selection for Tech LLM Students and JD Tech Students
Tech LLM Students and JD Students studying at the Cornell Tech Campus for a semester will follow Cornell Tech’s registration procedures and schedules.
Course Selection for Clinics, Practicum Courses, Supervised Experiential Learning, and Externships
J.D. students and general LL.M. students may enroll in “community-engaged” experiential courses pursuant to the following guidelines. Most of the opportunities are only available to J.D. 2Ls, 3Ls, and LL.M. students, though a small number of 1L students may enroll in the spring 1L Immigration Law and Advocacy Clinic. The law school attempts to provide every J.D. student the opportunity to enroll in a clinic or practicum course during their time at Cornell Law (although not necessarily their course of choice). Note that in addition to the live-client courses described below, simulation courses satisfy the experiential learning requirement.
Clinical Courses
The Law School’s clinical courses provide law students with a number of opportunities to engage in the actual representation of clients under the direct and close supervision of members of the clinical faculty. Students are selected by the individual clinic instructors. General LL.M. students, under some circumstances, may also enroll in the clinics, also with instructor approval. A list of our current clinics is available on the Clinical Webpage.
Clinical students are involved in all phases of representation, e.g., interviewing and counseling clients, entity formation, contract drafting, fact investigation, pretrial litigation, hearings and trials, briefs, motions, and appellate arguments. In some clinics, students are admitted under student practice rules of state, federal, or administrative courts to practice law while under the direct and close supervision of a faculty member. For most students, this clinical experience is the first opportunity to apply what they have learned in the classroom to the actual practice of law, and it is the responsibility of the faculty to ensure that the transition is smooth and helpful and provides high-quality legal service to the clients.
The academic credit for each of these courses varies and can be as many as six credit hours per semester.
Practicum Courses
Practicum courses are similar to clinical courses. The primary difference is that practicum courses are adjunct-taught, and students do their work outside the clinical program offices, sometimes in the offices of the supervising adjunct professor. “Practicum courses count toward the 20-credit limit on “non- regularly scheduled” courses.
Supervised Experiential Learning
Supervised experiential learning courses allow students to complete a discrete pro bono advocacy project under faculty supervision. The course operates much like directed reading or supervised writing – students must make arrangements directly with a faculty member. Only full-time, long-term members of the faculty may teach this course. The student’s role must involve a substantial lawyering experience that implicates one or more of the Law School’s learning outcomes. Work for the course should consist of the types of matters that are currently handled by the clinical program. If a student wishes to seek pro bono hours certification for their work in the course, the student and faculty member should ensure the work satisfies the relevant standard. Like the clinics and practicum courses, this course will not satisfy any writing requirement. It will also count toward the 20-credit limit on “non-regularly scheduled” courses. Like the Supervised Writing and Supervised Teaching courses, credit limits are outlined on the form available on the Registrar’s website.
Faculty may determine credit awards based on work product or use student hours worked as the basis for awarding credit. If hours form the basis, the current minimum hours-to-credit ratio is 42.5 hours worked over the term for each credit (ABA Standard 310). Grade Option: S/U only. An individual student may enroll in the course for only one semester.
Externships
Second and third-year students have the opportunity to spend a portion of their law school time working at a placement outside the law school. Planning for and acceptance into all externship courses generally occurs one semester in advance. Students may enroll in either a part-time or full-time externship. These externships allow students to work under the supervision of an attorney at a placement with a non- profit organization, judicial chambers, governmental agency, or private sector company, virtually anywhere in the world for an entire semester and for a course credit commensurate with the time worked at the placement (four to twelve credits). As with clinical courses, students have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the actual practice of law under the direct and close supervision of the placement attorney while also maintaining contact with the faculty externship director and other externs. General LL.M. students may take up to one 4-credit externship with the faculty externship director’s approval. An additional course, Externship – Pro Bono Scholars Program, allows third-year law students to take the New York Bar Exam in February of their third year, after which they provide pro bono legal services full-time to low-income clients for twelve weeks at a placement with a governmental agency or non-profit organization.
The course is closely modeled after the Full-Term Externship course and is also for twelve credit hours. The Externship – Pro Bono Scholars Program is only available as a full-time course and is only available to students taking the New York Bar in February of their 3L year.
Students interested in an Externship or in the Pro Bono Scholars Program are generally required to submit an application for the program. Students can contact Director Azemi for more information.
The Full-Term Externship course allows students to earn 12 credit hours as externs working full-time (40 hours/week for 13 weeks) at various approved placement sites. A student may not spend more than a total of one upper-class semester away in our off-campus programs, such as a term away for educational reasons, study abroad, and Full-Term externship. This does not include the Cornell Tech program.
Students can enroll in the Full-Term Externship during the spring semester of their second year, or the fall or spring semester of their third year. A Full-Term Externship is analogous to full-time employment, and therefore students are not permitted to take additional courses in addition to a full-time externship for the semester. The placement sites, which typically include non-profit organizations or government agencies, are initially selected by the student. Approval preference is given to sites that meet the student’s educational needs or to sites that provide training in law that is not otherwise usually taught at Cornell Law School (e.g. fashion, entertainment, or sports law). Students interested in this course need to review the Externships recorded information session and additional material. Interested students are required to apply for the Full-Term Externship course to the Externship Director, generally by the deadline set during the semester preceding the externship. The application must include, among other things, a description of the placement and the activities that the extern expects to perform, a
statement of the extern’s educational and career goals, and an explanation of how those goals are better met at the placement than at the law school. The application must also include the placement Supervisor’s resume, detailing the Supervisor’s license as an attorney in the jurisdiction of the placement. The Externship Director will review the applications and decide whether each applicant should be granted conditional approval.
For students to receive final approval, the placement site must accept the student for the placement and meet specified criteria including identification of a licensed attorney at the placement who will closely supervise and mentor the student. In addition to their work responsibilities for the placement, the extern will participate in weekly web-based Zoom meetings discussions, prepare a learning agenda, and conduct weekly written assignments, in the form of either journal entries, short essays, or blog posts, for the faculty instructor. The placement sites will host the instructor for a virtual site visit via Zoom meeting. The instructor will conduct a written evaluation of the placement and the placement experience for the law school’s files. The placement site will submit mid-semester and end-of-semester surveys to the instructor regarding the experience. Similarly, the students will complete mid-semester and end-of-semester self-evaluations.
Part-Time Externships
If there are open spaces remaining in the Full-Term externship course, students may take the course for less than 12 credit hours with the permission of the instructor. The students must meet the same course requirements as the students who take the course for 12 credit hours, except that the number of weekly work hours and credits will be proportionately lower. Similarly, the number of written assignments is proportionate to the number of credits. If a student is not admitted to the Externships course, the student may petition the Associate Dean for Experiential Education for approval of an individualized externship opportunity. A student whose petition is granted is expected to fulfill the requirements described in the paragraph immediately above for students enrolled in the Full-Term Externship course.
New York Pro Bono Scholars Program
The New York Pro Bono Scholars Program, in which the Law School participates, allows third-year law students to take the New York Bar Exam in February of their third year, after which they provide pro bono legal services on a full-time basis to low-income clients for twelve weeks. The Pro Bono Scholars Program is only available as a full-time course and is only available to students taking the New York Bar in February of their 3L year. Students interested in the Pro Bono Scholars Program must submit an application for the program, more information here. The full-time course requirement and pro bono services requirement for this program can be met with either: a placement with an external organization that meets the requirement of the program or a placement at an in-house Law School clinical course that is supervised by a permanent faculty member at the Law School in Ithaca. Not all clinical courses can be designed by instructors as compatible with the requirements of the Pro Bono Scholars Program and special permission of the clinical instructor must be obtained in advance and in coordination with the Externship Director.
Add/Drop Policy
All course changes are made through your Cornell Student Center.
Unlimited Enrollment Course Add and Drop Policy
Unlimited enrollment courses are those where many qualified students can enroll as there are seats in the classroom. A student may add or drop upper-class courses with unlimited enrollment on dates to be determined by the Registrar’s Office. Limited enrollment courses constitute exceptions to the rule, as explained further below. After the add/drop period, students may not add a course and may drop a course only with the approval of the Dean of Students. Requests for permission to drop courses after the deadline are approved by the Dean of Students only in cases of extreme personal hardship beyond a student’s control, which do not include work assumed in curricular or extracurricular activities.
Limited Enrollment Course Add and Drop Policy
Enrollment in seminars is limited to a fixed number of students by faculty policy. Experiential learning courses, including simulations and problem courses, are limited as well. All requests to drop a problem course, seminar, or other limited enrollment upper-class course for the fall and spring terms must be submitted by dates to be determined by the Registrar’s Office. No special permission to drop is needed prior to the drop deadline except for those courses that have indicated special rules. A student who wishes to drop a limited enrollment course after this deadline may do so only with the permission of the instructor and the Dean of Students. A student who drops after the initial deadline will not be permitted to add a different problem or seminar course. Absent extreme personal hardship beyond a student’s control, late drops of limited enrollment courses will not be permitted if other students remained on the waitlist at the published drop deadline and, thus, were barred from admittance to the course.
Waiting Lists
Students will be contacted by email if a place becomes available in a limited enrollment offering for which they are on the waitlist. Students must check their email and schedules every day. Anyone admitted to a limited enrollment course who no longer wishes to enroll in the course must drop the course online by dates to be determined by the Registrar’s Office.
Official Transcript
Official transcripts are available only from the Office of the University Registrar and may be ordered through your Student Center. An official transcript does not post a Law School GPA.
Unofficial Grade Report
Unofficial grade reports are available from the Law School on the Registrar’s Office website at Forms and Requests
Withdrawals
A student may withdraw from the law school at any time by submitting a withdrawal request. The withdrawal is effective on the date the written notice is received. A student who withdraws from the law school is not entitled to return. Withdrawals after the end of the add/drop period will be recorded as a “W” on the student’s transcript.
Leaves of Absence
A copy of the Law School’s leave of absence policy and procedures for return, including procedures for re-entry following a health leave of absence, is available in this handbook or by calling or emailing the Law School Registrar or at (1-607-255-3628), J.S.D. students should refer to the Field Handbook and Graduate School Policies when requesting a leave.
To initiate your personal leave of absence request please submit via Health Leave of Absence. After doing so, J.D. and LL.M. students must submit a written petition to the Law School’s Law School Administrative Committee c/o the Law School Dean of Students. The petition should describe in detail the circumstances surrounding the request. Cornell Tech LLM Students should contact Cornell Tech’s Student & Academic Affairs Team.
Tuition Refund Policy
Amounts personally paid for tuition may be refunded if the student requests a leave of absence or withdrawal from the office of the dean of his or her college of enrollment. The date of this request will determine the tuition liability for the semester. All students should refer to the “Proration Schedule for Withdrawals and Leaves of Absence”.
Students receiving financial aid from the university who withdraw during a term will have their aid reevaluated, possibly necessitating repayment of a portion of the aid received. Repayment to aid accounts depends on the type of aid received, government regulations, and the period of time in attendance. For more information, contact the Cornell Law School Financial Aid Office.