Academics
Both dynamic and supportive, Vermont Law School is dedicated to instilling the professional skills and personal values you need to succeed. We foster deep engagement with your studies and your community—encouraging individuality, responsibility, and an interest in public service.
Our challenging, interdisciplinary curriculum encompasses the fundamentals of law as well as many specialized areas of interest, enabling you to customize your education and fulfill your personal goals. Beyond the classroom, we offer experiential learning opportunities, extra- and co-curricular activities, and the chance to study or work abroad. We also encourage you to seek your full potential as a public citizen. The wide range of degrees we award includes our dual degrees with schools such as Cergy-Pontoise, Cambridge, Dartmouth, Thunderbird and Yale. In every case, you will be learning from and working with a distinguished faculty of scholar-practitioners who are as accessible as they are notable.
Degrees
To accommodate the individuality of our students, VLS offers a variety of degrees, including a juris doctor, a master’s degree, two specialized master of laws, and more than 10 joint and dual degrees on campus and through our strong connections with other top-tier schools, domestic and international. |
International and Comparative Law ProgramsOur international course offerings, exchange programs, degree options, and externships enable you to spend a week or a semester learning or working abroad, including programs with McGill, Cambridge, and universities in France and Spain. |
Clinics and Experiential ProgramsFrom clinics and externships to the Semester in Practice, our experiential programs provide students with a range of opportunities to get hands-on, real-world experience before they graduate. |
General Practice ProgramWinner of the 2007 E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award, the GPP offers classes that simulate the structure of a law firm, enabling you to learn practical skills along with substantive law. |
Legal Writing ProgramThis highly individualized program begins in the first year and helps students develop legal research techniques, writing and reasoning skills, and the art of advocacy, while learning to make effective oral arguments. |
Academic Success ProgramThe Academic Success Program ensures students have access to individualized academic assistance. The office currently includes the Academic Success Director, the Assistant Director, who coordinates our Bar Passage program, and six upper level student mentors. |
Focused StudiesThrough our exchange programs, students spend a semester at schools such as Hastings College of the Law, or New York Law School. We offer a wide range of opportunities for interdisciplinary study. |
Summer SessionWith more than 35 environment- and energy-focused courses, the VLS Summer Session—the broadest and deepest in the nation—brings students, scientists, advocates, teachers, and government officials together to discuss critical issues of law and policy. |
Journals and CompetitionsIn addition to publishing two respected journals—the Vermont Law Review and the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law—VLS students hone their skills through four moot court competitions. |