Georgetown Law Reader

Tradition. Innovation. A superb faculty, hundreds of course offerings — and all of this just steps away from the Capitol and Supreme Court. Georgetown Law is an exceptional institution in an enviable location.
Students come to Georgetown Law from all over the world to study international, environmental or health care law (just a few of our specialties). They come here for our top-ranked clinics. Most of all, they come because this is the place where theory and practice meet. At Georgetown, students learn the law in the place where laws are made.
Since 1870, Georgetown Law has been an innovator in legal education with one of the largest full-time faculties in the world. Twenty-three of our professors have served as U.S. Supreme Court clerks and 39 have advanced degrees in other disciplines. Students can learn environmental law from EPA appointees, study national security law with former DOD officials and be introduced to appellate advocacy by professors who argue before the High Court.


Our clinical programs are consistently ranked the best in the nation, and we offer a wide array of practicum courses — from wrongful convictions to consumer advocacy. An impressive array of course offerings, including field placements in Washington, D.C., provide limitless learning opportunities. Externships, summer work and post-graduate fellowships round out a competitive, 21st-century legal education that is recognized and valued around the world. And initiatives like the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London, which includes leading law schools from almost 20 countries, offer unique opportunities for overseas study.

Georgetown Law is a diverse and dynamic place that connects individuals from many cultures and walks of life. More than 90 student organizations and 11 journals provide opportunities to meet students with similar political, cultural and religious affiliations

At Georgetown, we take pride in our Jesuit heritage — and in our motto: “Law is but the means, justice is the end.” The Office of Public Interest and Community Service — one of the few stand-alone public interest career centers in the country — coordinates numerous government and public interest placements and fosters a lifelong commitment to service.


In fact, public service at Georgetown begins the first week of the first year, with orientation opportunities to visit the elderly, feed the hungry or give back in other ways. The Law Center also provides scholarships, loan repayment assistance, fellowships or summer funding to make such choices possible.

Much that happens in the law revolves around institutions in Washington, D.C. In that orbit, Georgetown Law exerts its own gravitational pull, attracting experts from across town and around the world to the Supreme Court Institute (which moots more than 90 percent of the cases heard by the Court each year), the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law or the Georgetown Climate Center, to name just a few. In fact, each semester brings distinguished visitors — senators, congressmen, even Supreme Court justices — to campus. Georgetown Law is, quite simply, a place like no other.