Concentrations

When I talk to applicants and then admitted students, it's always so exciting to hear how many different areas of law they're interested in. And they ask, you know, how should they go about kind of figuring out what courses to take to explore one area of law or another. And so I tell them about our concentrations.

Absolutely. And, you know, not only is it a nice way for the student to sort of focus their studies, but it can also be a nice way of announcing to the world of potential employers. "This was my focus in law school."

And one thing I make clear to students is that at Southwestern, a concentration is optional. It's not like an undergraduate major, where you need to declare one.

I chose a concentration because I knew that I wanted to come to law school or for public interest. And so I just really wanted that to show in my transcript, in scholarships, for jobs, and everything to show my commitment.

I was really excited to be able to pursue a criminal law concentration, because I hope in my work, to challenge those laws, or those decisions that don't align with justice, or with our Constitution. Having a concentration allows you to maintain focus, and direct your steps towards where you hope to end up in your career as a lawyer.

A concentration, I think, is really important to do if you have any type of inkling as to what you want to do, because you're going to take those classes anyway, since you're interested in them already.

So you might as well do the concentration because then you'll get the distinction on your diploma. If you do the honors, you can also get that distinction for it. My concentration focus is labor and employment.

There are civil litigation and advocacy, criminal law and advocacy, entertainment and media law, labor and employment law, public interest law, and technology, law, and entrepreneurship.

At Southwestern, all the concentrations have some kind of hands-on component. Hands-on learning can cover clinics, or externships, depending on what concentration you're geared towards.

In general, concentrations involve a focus on theory to practice. Students are taking these abstract ideas. They're learning doctrines in the law, and they're translating them to real-world applications in litigation-- In transactions. That means skills courses, but it also means hands-on in-person training and clinics, externships, practicum courses, that give students a feel of how things really work.

And your externships, the classes that you're taking, the professors that you get to meet, all work in that field that you are considering and so you get to network and get some real-life exposure to the practice area.