Future Focused, Practice Ready
Innovative History and Future
Extensive practical experience prior to graduation. A solid skills-based foundation. Strong connections to the Chicago market. At Chicago-Kent College of Law these priorities guide the way. Our forward-thinking approach to legal education combines academic rigor with practical training, readying graduates for a rapidly changing legal industry. Our students receive a comprehensive and practice-focused legal writing foundation that empowers them to be successful at every step of their careers. With faculty who are both scholars and practitioners, a dynamic legal externship program, pioneering legal clinics, and award-winning moot court and trial advocacy teams, Chicago-Kent provides students with skills-based learning opportunities that prepare them to practice law in one of the largest legal markets in the United States and beyond.
The Future of Legal Education
Legal Writing and Advocacy
Chicago-Kent College of Law was the first law school in the United States to institute a three-year legal writing requirement. In our award-winning trial and appellate advocacy programs, you’ll learn how to write compelling briefs, present persuasive oral arguments, and refine your courtroom skills. Plus, you’ll develop and hone essential legal skills—researching, analyzing, writing, and advocating—by learning about and utilizing the most advanced technological tools available today.
Law Lab
The Law Lab is a premier interdisciplinary teaching and research center that focuses on legal innovation and technology. In the Law Lab, you’ll learn firsthand how technological advancements and more efficient business processes are shaping the practice of law. And the Law Lab is dedicated to offering robust courses that not only teach foundational lawyering skills, but also highlights methodologies for applying technology and quantitative analysis to the delivery of legal services.
C-K Law Group
Since the early 1980s, our in-house law firm—C-K Law Group—has been a pioneer in clinical legal education. The C-K Law Group’s attorneys are experienced practitioners who are leaders in their fields, giving you opportunities to gain real-world experience working on sophisticated legal matters. With nine in-house clinics, rich, real-world legal experience is available to you in criminal, tax, employment, civil litigation, intellectual property, and immigration law, among other areas.
Get Hands-On with Your Legal Education
Interested in embracing a practice- or experience-based course of study? Chicago-Kent’s Praxis program allows you to take broad advantage of our numerous hands-on learning opportunities—from clinics to externships to simulation courses. You’ll also receive individualized mentorship and guidance that helps you discover which areas of law are the best match for your talents, preferences, and competencies.
Prepare to Lead Your Own Practice
Once you graduate, you can also explore running your own firms in the Independent Practice Initiative as you start as a solo or small-firm legal practitioner. The 12- to 18-month bespoke program is tailored to accelerate the successful development of admitted lawyers in an “incubator” environment.
Law School Your Way
1L Your Way
This optional track lets you choose to pursue either an approved, upper-division elective course in an area of specialized interest to you or a unique first-year clinical course in the C-K Law Group.
Summer Start
Get a jumpstart on your law school studies by taking the Criminal Law course through the optional early summer start.
Flexible Schedules
Evening and part-time daytime options are available.
Chicago-Kent’s Part-Time Law Program
› Three days on campus, one remote
› Summer start, lighter fall schedule
› Four years, including one summer
› Support for evening students
#9 in the nation for intellectual property law #12 in the nation for trial advocacy #14 in the nation among part-time programs 2025 U.S. News & World Report Rankings
Hands-On, Real-World Legal Education
Trial Advocacy
Chicago-Kent College of Law’s trial advocacy program hones your courtroom demeanor until it’s as persuasive as possible—and your brief writing will never be sharper. Our teams are the team to beat in trial advocacy competitions, and we consistently are ranked among the best in the nation. Our alumni and former champions volunteer hundreds of hours to help you bring out your best.
In addition, the Ilana Diamond Rovner Program in Appellate Advocacy offers advanced training in appellate writing and oral arguments. The centerpiece of the appellate advocacy program is the Ilana Diamond Rovner Appellate Advocacy Competition, which typically uses a case currently pending before the United States Supreme Court. The Moot Court Honor Society is also part of the appellate advocacy program, and its members represent Chicago-Kent in interscholastic competitions throughout the U.S.
C-K Law Group
Known since the early 1980s simply as the Law Offices of Chicago-Kent, the C-K Law Group was a pioneer in clinical legal education when it adopted a fee-generating model designed to replicate the experience of employment at a private law firm. Our clinics take the concept of “learning by doing” to an entirely new level, allowing students to work on sophisticated litigation and transactional matters across fields, all while under the supervision of highly experienced and ethical practitioners. As a student in the clinic, you can engage in many, if not all, aspects of a case, including client interviews; discovery; preparation of motions, pleadings, and correspondence; pretrial conferences; depositions; preparation for settlement or trial; and, at times, even arguing before a judge.
Our newest clinical attorney, Michelle Miller, was nominated for the Exceptional Academia Award from the National Bar Association’s Women’s Lawyers Division for her work establishing the Intellectual Property, Entertainment, and Entrepreneurship Law Clinic. In her clinic, you’ll have the unique opportunity to help clients start and scale businesses.
Externships
Gain valuable real-world experience through our judicial, legal, and semester-long law firm associate externship programs. Because of our deep connection to Chicago’s legal community, we are able to offer externships that allow students to work not only in the chambers of federal and state judges, but also for organizations such as the Office of the Illinois Attorney General, the United States Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the offices of various county prosecutors and public defenders. Private law firms, corporations, and a wide variety of advocacy organizations are also part of our extensive externship network.
Being a first-generation student, I didn’t really know what the process of applying to internships was going to look like. I don’t think the [ACLU of Illinois] internship would have been possible without the career services advisers prepping me for interviews or editing my resume and cover letters.”
—Ivana Bailey-Muñoz ’26
The school’s unique history of entrepreneurship and commitment to equal access to legal education, coupled with its unique position as the only law school connected to a leading technology university, provides an unparalleled opportunity to prepare our students for an ever-evolving future in the legal profession.”
—Jason Czarnezki, Dean of Chicago-Kent College of Law
Legal Writing
Legal research, analysis, and writing are among the most critical lawyering skills taught in law school, and these skills cannot be completely acquired in a single year. That’s why, as a Chicago-Kent student, you’ll take five semesters of legal writing courses.
The curriculum of our legal writing program is broken down by semester:
› First semester: Students develop the basic skills needed to research, analyze, and explain the law objectively.
› Second semester: Students focus on persuasive writing. Working with a single legal case, students prepare a trial memorandum of law and an appellate brief, then deliver an oral argument in the Charles-Evans Hughes Moot Court Program.
› Third semester: During the second year, students receive advanced training in the research analysis, writing, and oral communication skills needed by lawyers.
› Fourth semester: Students explore non-litigation-oriented transactional issues and documents, as well as practicing written and oral communication with colleagues and clients.
› Fifth semester: Students take an advanced seminar that explores a particular area of law during their final year that is focused on legal research and writing in areas such as environmental law, intellectual property, labor/employment law, civil litigation, or international law.
Chicago-Kent has been extremely supportive on my journey….The school is very accommodating and supportive of my journey with my daughter and being a mother in law school.”
—Shadawn Coleman-Epps ’24
Where Passion Meets Practice
As part of your J.D. studies at Chicago-Kent College of Law, you can pursue a certificate in one of 12 specializations, including:
Intellectual Property
Our intellectual property law program is consistently regarded as one of the best in the country; it was ranked #9 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 rankings. In addition to the IP-Patent Clinic and externship opportunities with Chicago’s many IP firms, you can gain even more experience participating in the school’s pro bono Patent Hub, through which you’ll interview inventors and learn the patent process.
Labor and Employment Law
With an employment law program that has consistently received the rare A+ grade from preLaw magazine, the labor and employment law specialization benefits greatly from prominent alumni practitioners who will help familiarize you with current trends in the discipline. The college’s renowned Martin H. Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace also serves as a national center for research, training, dialogue, and reflection on the law that governs the workplace, as well as access to mentorships, journal editorial board opportunities, conferences, and special scholarships.
Legal Innovation and Technology
How has technology—specifically advances in artificial intelligence—changed the law? How will it impact the law in a future world that will be changed by unforeseen circumstances? Our faculty include legal scholars who specialize on the leading-edge intersection of law and technology, a Law Lab that is recognized for its international research on technology and the law, experts who study the everchanging case law surrounding online contracts, and more. Chicago-Kent also benefits from our affiliation with Illinois Tech, Chicago’s leading tech-focused university.
Public Interest Law
Our location in Chicago offers one big advantage if you are passionate about public interest law: we partner with numerous agencies and nonprofits in the city— organizations such as Legal Aid Chicago and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office—allowing you to take part in internship and fellowship opportunities. Our faculty and staff will help you identify an area of public interest that you are passionate about, and a series of public interest events and practicums are offered that allow you to network with those in the field and stay apprised of current legal issues. Through the Public Interest Center, Chicago-Kent
encourages all of our students to explore volunteering and pro bono opportunities, such as at its Self-Help Resource Center at the Circuit Court of Cook County, where students assist those trying to navigate the court system.
And more…
Business Law
Criminal Litigation
Environmental and Energy Law
International and Comparative Law
Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution
Praxis Program
Privacy Law
kentlaw.iit.edu/jd-certificate-programs
Chicago-Kent was the natural choice because of the Malin Institute for Law and the Workplace. I learned that we had a public interest center and that there was a career adviser who was dedicated specifically to helping us get jobs in public interest.”
—Joseph Strom ’25
The Chicago-Kent Impact
Eileen O’Neill Burke ’90
Our alumni make an impact across all areas of law, be it as practicing lawyers, as part of the judiciary, as public servants, and many other ways.
Kwame Raoul ’93
The Illinois attorney general since 2019, Raoul has since defended those impacted by violent crimes, championed workers’ rights, and protected consumers from scams throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic. He has engaged in numerous partnerships with outside agencies and attorneys general in other states on such issues as defending access to quality health care, protecting natural resources, and fighting for fair immigration policies. Before being elected as attorney general, Raoul served as an Illinois state senator from 2004–19.
Joseph Strom ’25
Strom was named as a 2025 recipient of the Skadden Fellowship, a prestigious program that has enabled him to establish a program with statewide nonprofit Equip for Equality that will provide assistance to job seekers with disabilities who face discrimination from artificial intelligence, other technological hiring assistance software, the denial of remote work, and website inaccessibility in the application process. As a student, Strom served as a Justice John Paul Stevens Public Interest Fellow at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, at Legal Aid Chicago, at Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and in the Illinois Attorney General’s Office Workplace Rights Bureau.
Jen Nacht ’21
Nacht is an associate at Greer, Burns, & Crain, Ltd., where she primarily deals in trademark and copyright litigation and patent prosecution. She also runs the Curious Cat IP Blog. After graduation, she launched her own firm through the Independent Practice Initiative, which allowed her to represent the Freadom Road Foundation in a trademark cancellation proceeding. The Freadom Road Foundation is a nonprofit that is dedicated to stopping the cycle of intergenerational incarceration.
Robert J. White ’10
White was recently confirmed to serve as a United States District Court judge in the Eastern District of Michigan. Before he took to the bench, White spent a decade prosecuting organized crime as an assistant U.S. attorney with the Department of Justice, where he earned numerous accolades. He was named Prosecutor of the Year by the El Paso Bar Association in 2017 and by Homeland Security Investigations in 2023. He also received the Federal Bureau of Investigation Recognition for Outstanding Work in 2018 and the Counsel of the Inspectors General Award for Excellence in 2020.
Monica Whitten ’23
Whitten spent 11 years working her way up in the world of commercial real estate investment management, handling large real estate portfolios across the southern region of the United States. After stepping away from the workforce for a decade to care for her son, who had fallen ill, she decided to follow her dreams and pursue law school. She is now a member of the litigation team at Gutnicki LLP, where she uses her love of numbers and her skills in finance and real estate to litigate complex business disputes.
Faculty Focus
Associate Professor
James Fallows Tierney
Tierney, who also serves as Chicago-Kent’s associate dean for academic affairs, teaches courses in business law and administrative law, and his research focuses on how law shapes the way that ordinary people and financial markets interact with each other. He is an expert in the regulation of broker-dealers, investment advisers, and selfregulatory organizations such as stock exchanges. He also practiced in the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the General Counsel for five years.
Professor Carolyn Shapiro
Shapiro is the founder and co-director of Chicago-Kent College of Law’s Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States. Her scholarship is largely focused on the institutions of our constitutional democracy—in particular the U.S. Supreme Court—and how those institutions interact. She teaches courses in constitutional law, legislation and statutory interpretation, and public interest law and policy. She also directs Chicago-Kent’s Public Interest Certificate Program.
Unique Connection to a Tech-Focused University
A part of Illinois Tech, Chicago-Kent College of Law is one of the nation’s only law schools tied to a techfocused university—which means that you will receive a foundational education in the technological advancements that are constantly altering the practice of law. Based in the global metropolis of Chicago, Illinois Tech was founded to liberate the power of collective difference to advance technology and innovation for all. It is Chicago’s leading techfocused university, and it stands at the crossroads of exploration and invention, advancing the future of Chicago and the world.
Professor Sarah Fackrell
Fackrell, co-director of the program in intellectual property law, is an internationally recognized expert in design patent law. She teaches courses in IP and design patents. Her research focuses on the intersection between art, design, and IP law. Her research into the “Schedule A” phenomenon has been cited by a federal judge, and her expertise in the area has led to her being quoted in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, Reuters News, Wired.com, Forbes.com, Time.com, Fast Company, Curbed, 404 Media, Managing IP, Law360, and Bloomberg Law.
Assistant Teaching Professor
Alexander Rabanal
A recipient of Illinois Tech’s 2024 Michael J. Graff Teaching Innovation Award, Rabanal teaches courses focused on legal innovation and technology, including courses in technology and access to justice, professional responsibility, and artificial intelligence. Rabanal, who also serves as the associate director of Chicago-Kent’s Law Lab, is the faculty adviser at the Self-Help Resource Center, a student-run help desk providing legal information to self-represented litigants at the Richard J. Daley Center in Chicago.
Support and Mentorship
Academic Skills Program
The goal of the Academic Skills Program (ASP) is to ensure that all of our students maximize their academic potential as they encounter the rigors of law school. In collaboration with doctrinal faculty, the offices of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs, and the legal research and writing program, ASP seeks to empower you to become an independent, selfregulating learner capable of increasing your learning effectiveness in law school and in practice.
Bar Prep
Our support for bar readiness begins early. Through robust academic success programming that starts in your first year, we build a strong foundation in legal reasoning, study strategies, and exam performance that supports long-term success.
During your final semester, you may also enroll in Bar Foundations for Success, an in-person, creditbearing course that reinforces essential skills for the bar exam, including legal analysis, writing, and test-taking strategies. Together, these programs form a comprehensive pathway to help you enter the bar exam with confidence and competence.
As you approach graduation, we offer a series of bar success workshops—free, in-person, targeted sessions that focus on bar-specific skills such as essay writing, time management, and other bar exam strategies. The workshops are designed to help you navigate the intense demands of bar preparation with structure and support, and you will also receive individualized feedback and coaching.
Peer Adviser Program
As a first-year law student, it is common to have many questions about law school and the challenges of a new academic environment. A C-K Peer Adviser will help you acclimate to the rigors of law school. This informal advising program introduces you to an upper-division student who can help you find answers to your questions and provide guidance about the new challenges you will face. The program is designed to give you a perspective on law school from someone who was recently in your position. We do our best to match you to a peer adviser with similar interests.
Wellness@CK Program
Chicago-Kent College of Law is committed to helping you face the challenges of law school and beyond by providing programming and services focused on wellness. In conjunction with the American Bar Association, we encourage students to understand
their overall wellness in terms of six particular dimensions: occupational, emotional, physical, intellectual, spiritual, and social.
Throughout the year, we offer programming and resources to help you find direction in each of these areas. We are focused on connecting students to services, resources, and activities available through our community that address issues of wellness.
Career Services
The Office of Career Development and Professionalism aims to help you achieve your professional goals through individualized counseling and assistance. Career counselors provide you with career planning advice, revision of resumes and cover letters, assistance with career changes, and interviewing strategies. The office also provides opportunities for students to develop professional skills through programming, such as networking events, practice-area-specific lunch and learns, employer info sessions, and workshops.
Our services include:
› Advice on planning for your career; searching, applying, and interviewing for jobs; and accessing Chicago-Kent’s extensive alumni network
› Access to job fairs, as well as on-campus interviewing opportunities with individual law firms within Chicago-Kent’s vast legal network
› Support for students who wish to apply for local and nationwide judicial clerkships
› Access to search for existing job and internship opportunities and review the library of resources as part of the C-K Career Hub
Visit and Apply
Are you ready to start your legal career with Chicago-Kent?
Schedule a visit at our modern campus in downtown Chicago. You can attend an open house or information session, take a campus tour, or set up a meeting with an admission counselor. Let us help you prepare for one of the most important decisions of your career.
Schedule a Visit
Tour our beautiful Conviser Law Center campus in downtown Chicago. Our modern law school building supports first-class legal education: our classrooms, courtrooms, and library feature the latest technology for teaching and research, and our brand-new on-site fitness center allows students to work out between classes. In fact, preLaw magazine listed the law center as one of the best law school buildings in the country (spring 2022 edition).
kentlaw.iit.edu/jd-program/visit
Apply Today
Apply online to begin the next step in your professional journey. Our admission counselors are available to answer any questions you may have about the process.
kentlaw.iit.edu/jd-program/apply
Contact Us or Request More Information
312.906.5020
law-admissions@illinoistech.edu kentlaw.iit.edu/request-admissions-information
Founded in 1888, Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Institute of Technology is the second-oldest law school in Illinois. Chicago-Kent is a national leader in legal education, recognized for its scholarly excellence, practical and hands-on education, future-focused programs, and outstanding foundational skills training. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools and the Order of the Coif.
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