Focus Areas

Alternative Dispute Resolution
Columbia Law School has one of the most comprehensive ADR programs in the nation. The School has paved the way with a rich curriculum taught by faculty members and practitioners, including a hands-on mediation clinic that bridges theory and practice; a negotiation workshop; the renowned Deals course; and conferences, seminars, and workshops that bring the nation's leading dispute resolution experts to campus.

Asian Legal Studies at Columbia Law School
Asian Legal Studies at Columbia Law School

Brown v Board of Education
On May 17, 1954, a band of lawyers at the NAACP LDF, led by Thurgood Marshall, received a victorious ruling in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, which declared that "in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal' has no place." Jack Greenberg (CC '45, Law '48), a Columbia Law School professor and key member in the NAACP LDF for thirty-five years, as well as a number of Law School graduates, were among the attorneys who successfully argued the case.

Business Law
The business world is relying more and more on lawyers to manage companies, structure deals, settle disputes, and seize opportunities. Columbia students benefit from a renown faculty and a broad curriculum.

Clinical Education
In Columbia Law School’s eight innovative and challenging clinics, students get a jumpstart on the lifelong process of becoming thoughtful and responsible lawyers. Working with real clients, alongside public-interest lawyers, students delve into the areas of child advocacy, arts law, environmental law, human rights, mediation, nonprofit organizations and small businesses, prisoners’ rights, and the use of technology to enhance the practice of law.

Clinics in Action
Profiling student-led clinical projects.

Corporate Law
Exploring corporate law from diverse perspectives, students benefit from the Law School's tremendous strengths in comparative corporate governance and foreign corporate law. Faculty includes nationally recognized scholars who are also key architects of government policy.

Environmental Law
'The Environmental Law Clinic showed me the broad range of roles that lawyers play. In one case, students litigated a case that went to trial. In another, we researched the law for several community and environmental groups so that we could advise them on the strategies they might use in convincing decision makers to do the right thing...' -- Ben Longstreth '02

Expanding Curriculum
In the early days at Columbia Law School, the student body took courses called Medical Jurisprudence and Punishment. Today, options span from Legal Aspects of Organ Transplantation to Internet and Computer Crimes to clinics in children's rights and environmental law. Undergirding a Columbia Law education was and is a solid foundation in legal knowledge.

Faculty Authors


Gender Studies
Columbia Law School features a collection of activities exploring the legal aspects of gender and the gender aspects of law. Along with foundational courses and seminars, students also have the opportunity for practical experience from the Center for Public Interest, Social Justice Initiatives, and Clinics.

Human Rights
Columbia Law School has the oldest, richest, and most widely acclaimed human rights program of any law school in the United States and probably the world. For nearly half a century, it has been the model for pioneering education and scholarship in human rights. Since 1998, Columbia's human rights program has been coordinated by the Human Rights Institute.

Innovative Teaching
At Columbia Law School, classrooms are the most important rooms on campus. Our students are training to become leaders for the world.

Intellectual Property
Columbia Law School has hired three new professors of intellectual property law in the past two years, a clear signal that the School will play a significant role in the theory and development of laws and regulations that govern the world's marketplace of creativity. While Columbia's IP faculty would be considered first rate at any school in the nation, their teaching and scholarship is greatly enhanced by the school's location in New York.

International Law
From Francis Lieber, whose work formed the basis of the modern laws of war, to Professor Hans Smit, one of today’s leading experts on international arbitration and litigation, Columbia’s faculty have long been on the cutting edge of international legal scholarship. Columbia was among the first law schools to offer courses in foreign law and comparative legislation, to create joint-degree programs with law schools overseas, and to encourage the enrollment of foreign students.

International Students & Graduates


Legacy of Women
In the fall of 1927, Columbia Law School opened its doors to its first women students. Three-quarters of a century later, recent entering classes have been at least 50 percent female. From Margaret Spahr '29 to Ruth Bader Ginsburg '59 and beyond. Columbia Law's women have helped to enrich the world.

Legal Education
Columbia Law School ranks third among American law schools in the number of J.D. graduates in teaching positions, and first in the number of J.S.D. graduates in law faculties.

Legal History
Columbia Law School, the University, and New York City abound in rich source material for research in legal history. Courses address topics from the legal theory of conquest in the New World, to the Civil War and the New Deal, to today’s debates over remedies for discrimination, allowing students to delve deeply into the law’s development. The joint Law School–History Department Program in Law and History further supports such interdisciplinary scholarship.

Public Interest
Columbia's commitment to public interest law has a pervasive influence on the culture of the Law School. Ours is one of only a handful of law schools that require every student to undertake pro bono service while at the university.

Tort Law
Tort law is one of the foundations of any legal education. While each basic Torts class provides an introduction to the various types of civil wrong and infraction of public duty that are addressed by tort law, Columbia courses are enlivened by the perspectives of a variety of professors who, in teaching the course, bring their own areas of expertise to bear on this far-reaching subject.