Stay Connected
Facebook	Linkedin	Twitter	YouTube

Public Relations  >  Marketing and Communications  >  News and Digital Media  >  Quick Facts  >  School of Law

• Overview
• Faculty
• Students
• Alumni
• Points of Pride

Creighton University School of Law, founded in 1904, enrolls about 440 students who are taught by 29 full- and part-time faculty members.

• Marianne B. Culhane, J.D., serves as dean.
• The School of Law has four endowed chairs and two endowed professorships. The endowed chairs are:
  • The A.A. and Ethel Yossem Chair in Legal Ethics, held by R. Collin Mangrum, S.J.D.
  • The Connie Kearney Chair in Clinical Legal Education, held by Catherine Mahern, J.D.
  • The McGrath North Mullin & Kratz Chair in Business Law, held by Edward A. Morse, J.D.
  • The Senator Allen A. Sekt Chair in Law, held by Ralph U. Whitten, B.B.A., J.D., LL. M.
  • The James L. Koley , JD’54 Professorship in Constitutional Law, held by G. Michael Fenner, J.D.
  • The Frank J. Kellegher Professorship of Trusts and Estates, held by Ronald R. Volkmer, J.D., LL.M.
• The student-to-faculty ratio is 18:1.
• Creighton students may take a seminar taught by Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Clarence Thomas and Michael Fenner, the James L. Koley Professor of Constitutional Law. Offered every other year, the class provides a rare opportunity for face-to-face discussion of constitutional law with a Supreme Court justice.
• The law school hosts lectures by internationally renowned speakers. Recent presenters include U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito; Judges Dragoljub Popovic (European Court of Human Rights) and Michael J. Davis (U.S. Intelligence Surveillance Court); professors Thomas D. Morgan (George Washington University), John Paul Lederach (University of Notre Dame), Andrew Morriss (University of Illinois), Charles Ogletree (Harvard University), Geoffrey Stone (University of Chicago), Richard De Mulder (Erasmus University, the Netherlands); as well as Theodore Shaw (President of NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund) and Kenneth Roth (Executive Director of Human Rights Watch).

• More than 1,100 students applied for the 2011-2012 freshman class. There are eight applications for every seat in the entering class.
• Approximately 65 percent of Creighton law students are from states other than Nebraska.
• In 2011-12, the student population was 37 percent female, 63 percent male and 12 percent minority.
• The Creighton School of Law has a law student exchange program with Universidad Pontifica Comillas, a Jesuit university in Madrid, Spain.

• Of the 2011 graduates whose employment status was known nine months following graduation, 88.4 percent were employed, pursuing a graduate degree or not seeking employment. Of those employed, 92.7 percent were employed in positions requiring a J.D. or in which J.D. provided an advantage to employment; 54 percent were employed in Nebraska, and 46 percent employed outside of Nebraska. Students accepted offers of employment in 21 states, including the District of Columbia.
• Of Creighton’s graduating class in 2011, 83 percent passed the bar exam on their first try.

• Each year, the School hosts lectures by nationally-prominent attorneys and officials.
• Creighton University School of Law offers two courses for summer study abroad in Nuremberg, Germany. Students enrolled in Creighton's summer abroad program "From Nuremberg to The Hague" spend the month of June in Germany and The Netherlands with leading faculty, exploring the reaches of international criminal law, the impact of the Holocaust on the law, and the prosecution of war criminals and perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity.
• The law school recently announced a joint degree program geared to the growing needs of government for highly qualified lawyers. In three years, Creighton law students can earn both a Juris Doctorate and a Master of Science degree in Government Organization and Leadership (GOAL). A central feature of the program is a Washington, D.C. - based semester that includes a full-time federal government externship. 
• The nationally recognized Werner Institute, now in its sixth year, is drawing many students to its master’s degree programs and offers law students the opportunity to earn both a Juris Doctorate and a Master of Science in Dispute Resolution in three years.
• The law school helps its students gain experience in public interest law. Each year the Creighton Fund for Clerkships in the Public Interest (CFCPI) provides summer grants to first- and second-year students who accept unpaid summer externships with government and non-profit entities. In 2010, the program funded 48 students who worked in eight states.
• The law school has extensive course offerings in trial practice and appellate advocacy, as well as competitions and teams. In 2010-11, student teams participated in more than a dozen regional and national trial, moot court, client counseling and negotiations competitions.
• The law school has a significant and growing externship program. In 2010-2011, 74 students completed externships in Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Illinois, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, D.C. and Germany.
• The Milton R. Abrahams Legal Clinic and the Community Economic Development (CED) Clinic provide valuable services to low-income persons in the community and give law students a hands-on learning environment. In 2010, students in the Abrahams Legal Clinic provided advice and referrals to more than 1,271 low-income persons and represented 186 individuals in cases ranging from administrative hearings to appellate arguments, and in matters as varied as the preservation of a housing subsidy and a breach of contract. There is increased emphasis on representing clients who are victims of domestic violence.
• In fiscal year 2010 the Community Economic Development Clinic (CED) represented 94 individual clients; many of them referred by Microenterprise Development Organizations (MDOs), and provided 32 business law workshops to 321 people. The workshops were carried out in collaboration with 31 MDOs and other private and public organizations. Another 281 people used the center’s on-line Nebraska Microenterprise Handbook. The CED estimates that these efforts assisted in the creation or maintenance of 55 jobs. 
• The Milton R. Abrahams Legal Clinic is the first winner of the Inez Fitz Community Service Award, presented annually by the Fair Housing Center of Nebraska-Iowa. The clinic was chosen because of its "tireless and effective work to assist economically disadvantaged people [to] enjoy protections afforded by housing laws. The clinic's work has led to countless people preserving or improving their housing. The clinic's Fair Housing Act litigation includes...two cases that were groundbreaking in protecting women from sexual harassment and people with disabilities from exploitation by landlords. The Clinic's advocacy has helped to educate not only its students but the Bar as a whole on fair housing rights."
• The Service and Justice Fund supports law school programs that help law students build a foundation of moral values for lifelong service and develop their whole person through discernment, community service and outreach to those in need. These programs include the Institute for Latin American Concern (ILAC), the legal clinics and the Kutak Loan Repayment Assistance Program.
• The Creighton Law School Service and Justice Fund was created in honor of Professor Ronald Volkmer, BA '66, JD ’68. The fund supports law school programs that create opportunities for students to develop a foundation of moral values for lifelong service in the law, with the additional goal of developing the "whole person" through community service and outreach to those in need. These programs include the Institute for Latin American Concern (ILAC), the Milton R. Abrahams Legal Clinic, and the Loan Repayment Assistance Program.