Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Founded: 1898
Joined AALS: 1945
Dean: James Hackney
Founded in 1898 and an AALS member school since 1945, Northeastern University School of Law is a private law school with 234 first-year JD students enrolled at their institution. Northeastern Law is known for its leadership in legal experiential education. All full-time JD students graduate with almost a year of full-time work experience through the school’s signature Cooperative Legal Education Program. More than 1,000 employers worldwide participate in the program. Every student is guaranteed three full-time placements that typically last between 13 and 15 weeks. The benefits of co-op extend far beyond graduating with an impressive resume. Students bring lessons learned on co-op into the classroom, creating a vibrant intellectual exchange that builds with each new experience. A significant number of students accept post-graduate positions with their former co-op employers or through networks created on co-ops.
In their classrooms, students are taught by faculty recognized for their outstanding scholarship and advocacy in critical fields such as public health, civil rights, intellectual property, data security, technology, immigration, and more. Northeastern Law faculty are passionate about teaching and take great pride in inspiring the next generation of professionals who will make their mark on the world. Graduates of the law school include renowned public interest law advocates, managing partners at global law firms, and leaders in business, nonprofits, LGBTQ+ rights, and politics. In every field of law, and in many areas beyond traditional law practice, Northeastern Law strives to make an impact and change people’s lives for the better. Northeastern Law was awarded the 2023 AALS Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues Institutional Award for its innovative contributions to the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the legal academy and the legal profession more broadly.
Dedication of ‘Rayfield Davis Way’ with representatives from the History Museum of Mobile and Northeastern University School of Law’s Civil Rights & Restorative Justice Project
In 2021, Northeastern launched the Center for Law, Equity, and Race (CLEAR), which builds upon the work of the law school’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) and Criminal Justice Task Force. In September 2022, CRRJ announced the unprecedented Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive, one of the most comprehensive digital archives of racial homicides collected to date. The archive brings together evidence demonstrating the extensive scale and scope of killings between 1930 and 1954 in the Jim Crow South. Many of the 1,000 cases of anti-Black killings were mishandled by local police and prosecutors or went unreported until investigated by Northeastern law students and faculty. Built on open-source architecture, the archive offers users the opportunity to learn about how violence affected people’s lives, defined legal rights, and shaped politics during the Jim Crow era. Visit the archive at crrjarchive.org.
“At Northeastern Law, we put the student experience at the top of our priority list. From outstanding courses taught by our first-rate faculty, including our pathbreaking Legal Skills in Social Context first-year clinical experience, to the co-op program to our upper-level clinics to our Centers of Excellence and a variety of other programs and institutes, we are continually evolving to meet the needs of our students and society. Law is not just in the books at Northeastern — it lives, breathes, and challenges us to do more and to do better for the sake of every member of society,” said Dean James Hackney.
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