LAW SCHOOL THAT FITS YOUR LIFE
“I found that I was provided with a lot of different resources that I could tap into in order to find the balance between schoolwork and my job.” Raya Esmaeili, 3L Raya emigrated from Iran 13 years ago. Learn how she has discovered a newfound sense of purpose— and support from Mitchell Hamline—as she attends law school while working as a senior planner at the Metropolitan Council in St. Paul.
Welcome
TO MITCHELL HAMLINE SCHOOL OF LAW KEY FACTS We offer both on-campus and blended-learning enrollment options Started in 1900 as a night school set up by five notable St. Paul attorneys to train working people in the law; more than a century of experience making legal education accessible to talented students from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences. Blended learning is the first and longest-running online/ on-campus J.D. program at an ABA-approved law school. Options to flex between full time, part time, on-campus, and blended after your 1L year Highly ranked programs in dispute resolution, health law, trial advocacy, legal writing, clinical training, and intellectual property law.
A nationwide alumni network of over 20,000 using their J.D. to transform their lives and make a difference in their communities
National leader in blended learning
Seventeen clinics, allowing students to work with clients in areas such as child protection, immigration, wrongful conviction, intellectual property, health law, and more. Eight academic centers and institutes, including the Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law, with its unique focus on Black lives, and the Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute, which has helped recruit a dozen Native students per year to Mitchell Hamline the past few years. Learn more about our clinics and centers and institutes.
Blended-learning student locations
Blended-learning alum locations
“Kev vam meej yog ib txoj kev ua roob ua hav. Txawm yuav nyuaj npaum li cas los yuav tsum hla kom dhau, thiab ntseeg yus tus kheej.” Hmong-English translation: “Success is a non-linear journey. Be perseverant and believe in yourself.”
Fee Moua ’22 A first generation college graduate, Fee specialized in Health Law and Compliance with the goal of helping underserved communities. See his inspirational video to learn why he chose Mitchell Hamline and how he earned his J.D. following a life-threatening health crisis due to a rare spinal cord tumor.
KEY COMMITMENTS
Academic support and bar preparation
REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE
Faculty
Mitchell Hamline provides a demanding legal education so engaged with the profession that our graduates have an enduring advantage as they meet the challenges of an increasingly complex world. Students get the maximum possible opportunities to do what real lawyers do while still in law school.
Teaching the skills to help you succeed in classes and on the bar exam More than 50 full-time faculty. Thirty percent of all faculty are Indigenous or people of color, and 55% are women.
Personal wellness and identity Multiple offerings help foster health and a sense of belonging— a wellness center, counseling, disability services, affinity groups, student organizations, journals and competitions, prayer/reflection room, and wellness activities such as yoga classes and mindfulness sessions.
From fall 2022 through summer 2023:
Career and professional development
168 students volunteered 5,417 hours serving more than 1,704 clients through the Minnesota Justice Foundation.
Each first-year student is paired with a J.D.-credentialed career adviser and, through the Foundations of Practice curriculum, connected to alumni mentors.
154 students participated in clinics. In clinics, students represent real clients under faculty supervision. Students were placed in 460 externships. Through externships, students earn law school credit working off campus in legal settings under supervision of faculty and attorneys. Students were placed in 25 residencies. Students in residencies earn law school credit working off campus full time for a semester in legal settings under faculty and attorney supervision.
CARE AND SUPPORT
Because we are a freestanding, independent law school, all departments here are dedicated solely to serving law students. That extends beyond academics to include emotional, social, physical, and spiritual well-being. Many of our staff are Mitchell Hamline graduates and can relate personally to the journey you’re on. Academic affairs Academic advising and degree planning customized for you
93% of 2022 graduates were seeking and found work in bar-passage-required, J.D.-advantage, or professional positions or were pursuing an additional advanced degree within 10 months of graduation. We include this wide array of positions in our employment rate because it recognizes the diversity of interests, backgrounds, and long-term career goals held by Mitchell Hamline graduates.
SOCIAL JUSTICE AND DEI “As a community, we have concluded that law schools and the legal profession can and must do more to end the injustices of racism that are embedded in many aspects of U.S. society, including the judicial system, the legal profession, and law schools.” —From a faculty resolution in February 2021 committing Mitchell Hamline to work toward becoming an antiracist institution We became the first ABA-approved law school in the country to enroll currently incarcerated people in 2022. We are a leader in the effort to reform bar licensure to reduce racial inequities.
Technology In-house instructional design and technology support centered on the student experience
Learn more about our faculty
“Words cannot describe how excited I am to have been accepted into blended learning at Mitchell Hamline. It complements my current lifestyle and the demands of my life. This is a dream come true for me and my family.”
Tenesha Shaw Mason, 2L Tenesha, a postprofessional doctor of occupational therapy, lives in New Jersey. Hear her story of how “critically important” it was for her to go to law school where she could earn her J.D. and still manage being an employee, a parent, a wife, and a caretaker to her mother.
BLENDED-LEARNING BASICS
What stands out about blended learning at Mitchell Hamline?
HOW DOES IT WORK?
First and best
During the first two years, you come to campus twice each semester. Usually it’s for a week, but twice it’s a long weekend. The rest of the time you are studying online, with no set schedule but with weekly deadlines. After the first two years, you can continue on a similar schedule but with one campus visit per semester instead of two. You can also choose fully on-campus, remote and synchronous, or fully online course options. The degree is typically completed in four years but can be finished earlier.
We were the first to launch a program like this, in 2015. A total of 762 students have graduated from our blendedlearning program, and the employment rate for blendedlearning grads in the class of 2022 was 92%. This is a proven program that’s widely regarded as the industry leader.
WHEN WILL I BE ON CAMPUS THE FIRST YEAR?
You can meet the requirements in every state, including New York.
SEMESTER
After your first two years, you’ll have fully in-person and fully online course options and access to classes in the evenings, over J-term, and in the summer. ,
1 FALL
SPRING
PREPARATION WEEK
CAPSTONE WEEK
First week of semester
End of semester
(August)
(November)
PREPARATION WEEK
CAPSTONE WEEK
Beginning of semester
End of semester
Long weekend
(March/April)
(January)
Scan for blended-learning calendar dates from the current school year.
The online portions are asynchronous. There are weekly, optional, synchronous office hours for your courses, to allow you to connect with your professors and colleagues. These are recorded and posted to view if you can’t attend synchronously. You get maximum flexibility to work around job and family commitments.
Bar eligibility
Flexible and customizable
SEMESTER
2
No required ‘live’ online classes
It’s the same law school Blended-learning students are taught by the same full-time, tenured professors who teach in the on-campus program, and they have access to a range of clinics, externships, specialized academic certificates, seminars, law journals, competitions, student groups, and activities just as on-campus students do.
Student successes First blended-learning student in the country elected editor in chief of a law review (2019) Blended-learning student teams win International Negotiation Competition twice in four years (2017 and 2021)
WHERE WE ARE CAMPUS We’re on six acres of traditional Dakota land in the capital city of St. Paul, Minnesota. To our south is Summit Avenue, St. Paul’s stateliest boulevard. It has the longest stretch of preserved Victorian architecture in the country and has been ranked as one of the best places in the state to view fall foliage. One street beyond Summit is Grand Avenue, a destination for dining, shopping, and living and a popular gathering spot for law students. To the north is the Summit-University neighborhood, onetime stomping grounds of Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright August Wilson, home to the state’s oldest high school, a place where aviator Amelia Earhart once sang in the church choir, and former site of the Rondo neighborhood—the heart of St. Paul’s Black community for decades before it was broken up by interstate construction in the 1950s and ’60s.
TWIN CITIES Mitchell Hamline is just minutes by car or light rail from the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, which are home to state and federal government offices, top law firms, and 15 Fortune 500 companies. Roughly 3.5 million people call the Twin Cities home, drawn to world-class attractions including professional teams in football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer; thriving nightlife; an extensive craft beer community; plentiful theater offerings; and nationally ranked park systems.
M I N N E AP O LI S
S T. PAU L
AMONG OUR RECENT ACCOLADES
PLEASE REACH OUT PERSONALLY CONNECT WITH US
Meet students, professors, alumni, and Admissions representatives. Talk with an Admissions counselor, current student, or faculty member to learn more about the application process and all that Mitchell Hamline has to offer. Envision yourself as a law student here. JOIN US AT AN INFORMATION SESSION
We host several information sessions throughout the year with students, professors, and other special guests. Join us to learn more about how Mitchell Hamline can help you reach your goals.
A P P LI C ATI O N C H EC KLI S T All applicants Take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) Register with the Credential Assembly Service (CAS) Send official copies of all your college transcripts to CAS Send letters of recommendation to CAS NOTE: We prefer letters be less than two years old.
Complete an application for admission Attach a personal statement Attach a résumé
Go to mitchellhamline.edu/admission/visiting for details about opportunities to connect in person and online.
LEARN MORE ABOUT MITCHELL HAMLINE P : 651-290-6476
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For additional information about transfer, visiting, and international applications visit mitchellhamline.edu/admission/applying
E : admissions@mitchellhamline.edu
875 Summit Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55105 MitchellHamline.edu
New to the law school application process? Watch our how-to-apply video.
ADMISSIONS TEAM From left to right: Ann Buesgens; Ann Gemmell ’12; Julie Olmsted ’08; Soua Xiong; and Jack Her
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“At Mitchell Hamline you can move through the different enrollment options as they adapt to your life. If career advancement and working on your professional goals is important to you, you can maintain that while you go to law school.” Deven Bowdry ’23, Law Review Vol. 49 Editor in Chief Discover how the part-time enrollment option was the right fit for Deven to attend law school and grow in his career as a legislative liaison at the Minnesota State Capitol.
Office of Admissions 875 Summit Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota 55105 888–962–5529 mitchellhamline.edu © 2023 Mitchell Hamline School of Law 02003 2023-08