Robson Hall is Manitoba’s only law school and it is home to numerous Canadian and international students. In this article, you will learn about the strengths, enrolment statistics, tuition fees, scholarships, and the curriculum of this legal institution.
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Law School Summary
Every law school is different and below you will find what makes Robson Hall and its law degrees unique.
Strengths of Robson Hall
Robson Hall Law is notably distinguishable for its Marcel A. Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law and the Asper Chair of International Business and Trade Law. The former is focused on creating such a program so as to best train lawyers-in-the-making based on the ever-changing market needs. The latter operates with the same purpose, albeit on a more practical standing, via supporting internships and careers in law and/or business on the international level.
Other than that, U of M Law has a strong Legal Research Institute and some aspects standing out from its wide curriculum include modules linked to Migration Law and Aboriginal Law.
Special Qualities of Robson Hall
The University of Manitoba Law has an appealing exchange program with its Asian partners in China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, not to mention its ties across Western (including Iceland) and Eastern Europe, plus Scandinavia too. For those willing to embark on academic exchange journeys to more exotic or unknown destinations, then Mexico, Costa Rica, and Australia would open their doors to welcome University of Manitoba students.
In terms of professional development, the University of Manitoba’s Law department promotes a variety of activities to shape exemplary, skilled future lawyers. Competitive Mooting, negotiation and advocacy training, business and human rights-oriented law clinics, as well as judge shadowing, are some of the methods used to equip the local student law community with attributes and portfolio experience.
Robson Hall Admissions
The full application package of documents must be submitted no later than December 1 of the year prior to the intake period. You will stand a better chance of acceptance if you meet the admission requirements.
Undergraduate Degree
To be eligible to apply for a graduate law degree at the University of Manitoba, candidates need to have completed a minimum of a three-year undergraduate degree.
Resume
The first application passage involves preparing a two-page resume (only for all Regular and Indigenous candidates) emphasizing one’s employment, volunteering, and educational experiences.
Personal Statement
Candidates must also submit a 1,500-word Personal Statement and the University is particularly demanding as to the line spacing – it should be set to double spacing!
LSAT
Unsurprisingly, the LSAT is also a key component of the admission process. As of 2021, any LSAT scores dating back up to June 2016 can be considered, preference of which will be given to one’s highest performance, needless to say.
The Admissions Committee weighs one’s LSAT result and grade point average (GPA) equally.
GPA
When it comes to the GPA, the average statistics here are fixed at 3.92 based on the average submitted results. According to the University’s GPA scale that would equal a very high B+ grade (4.0 is the threshold for an A grade).
Enrolment Statistics
The latest data registered 665 applications for Manitoba Law School, of which 106 were admitted in Year One of the Juris Doctor program.
- 21 of these applicants were categorized as Indigenous;
- 150 were found under the ‘Individual Consideration (Mature Candidates)’ stream; and
- The remaining 494 applied under the ‘Index (Regular) Category’.
In 2017/18, 107 candidates were accepted from a similar number of applications, 52% of which were female.
In principle, the University of Manitoba Law School tends to receive 600 or so applications at a minimum and this number could peak at around 800.
Nevertheless, the University of Manitoba Law is a diverse place bringing together people from 120 countries in Year One. This amounts to 17.1% of the total student population. Whilst its alumni network is represented by 127 different national flags.
This brings the total number of students across the Law Faculty to 306.
Student Finance Information
Tuition
Below is the table of academic fees. We have multiplied the first-year fees three times to reach a rough indicator as to what the final scholastic expenses could amount to:
| Canadian citizens | International students | |
| First-year fees | $12,400 CDN | $28,900 CDN |
| Second- and Third-year fees (per year) | Undisclosed | Undisclosed |
| Ancillary fees | $750 CDN | $1,750 CDN |
| Estimated textbooks’ costs | $1,500 CDN | $1,500 CDN |
| Law school application fee | $100 CDN | $120 CDN |
| Additional living expenses per year (e.g. rent and meal plans) | $15,000 CDN to $20,000 CDN | $15,000 CDN to $20,000 CDN |
| Three-year total fees | $99,550 CDN | $150,070 CDN |
Scholarships
Robson Hall advertises the following variations of academic financial aid:
- Bursaries ranging from $100 CDN to $1,000 CDN, whereby a total of $1,700,000 have been gifted in this manner since 2005 to new and returning students;
- Entrance Scholarships for Early Offer admitted candidates appraised at between $3,500 CDN and $8,000, the application deadline for which is December 1 of the intake year. Applications for these scholarships might, for instance, request a 300-word written statement marketing one’s characteristics and standard of educational abilities; and
- A further 11 standard scholarships, three of which are sponsored by law firms – D’Arcy & Deacon LLP, Pitblado LLP and Taylor McCaffrey LLP.
Other ways of funding one’s degree include:
- Applying for the $1,000 CDN Donich Entrepreneurial Scholarship and/or the Insolvency Institute of Canada Prize in Insolvency Studies (also worth $1,000 CDN);
- Applying for provincial and federal government loans for your initial degree subsidy;
- Relying on Emergency Loans from the University of Manitoba for unexpected short-lasting adversities; and
- Qualifying with the local Bar of Manitoba, which would result in a forgiveness of a fifth of one’s student annual debt.
The Curriculum at Robson Hall
U of Manitoba Law School curriculum offers a variety of compulsory and elective modules worth 3-5 credits. These modules allow students to explore various legal issues and develop an interest in an area of law.
First-Year
Here are the compulsory modules for the inaugural year of the Juris Doctor program:
- Constitutional Law;
- Contracts;
- Criminal Law and Procedure;
- Legal Methods;
- Legal Systems;
- Property; and
- Torts and Compensation Systems.
There are no optional modules engraved in the Year One curriculum.
Second-Year
Students must complete the following modules in their penultimate year of studies:
- Administrative Law;
- Corporations I;
- Evidence;
- Introduction to Advocacy; and
- Legal Negotiation.
U of M Law School has a selection of optional modules for Years Two and Three of the course, all of which are displayed under the next subsection.
Third-Year
Final-year module choices for mandatory completion in the Juris Doctors include (obviously, a limited number of placement-based modules will be selected upon the students’ discretion):
- Advanced Advocacy;
- Advanced Family Law;
- Advanced Legal Research;
- Clinical Administrative Law;
- Clinical Criminal Law;
- Corporate Tax;
- Court of Appeal Clerkship;
- Court of Queen’s Bench Clerkship;
- Intensive Criminal Law;
- L. Kerry Vickar Business Law Clinical Internship;
- Legal Help Centre of Winnipeg, Inc. (LHC), Externship;
- Legal Profession and Professional Responsibility;
- Manitoba Law Reform Commission Externship;
- Public Interest Law Centre Internship;
- Robson Crim Research and Practice Experience;
- Taxation of Trusts and Estates;
- University of Manitoba Community Law Centre (UMCLC) Criminal Law Externship; and
- Wills and Succession.
Electives
The electives available for the upper years of the Juris Doctor program can be drawn from a wide pool of options:
- Aboriginal Law – Criminal Justice and Family Law;
- Aboriginal Peoples and the Law;
- Access to Justice;
- Agency & Partnership;
- Alternative Dispute Resolution;
- Bankruptcy and Insolvency;
- Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms;
- Canadian Legal History;
- Charter Issues in Criminal Law;
- Children, Youth and the Law;
- Civil Procedure;
- Commercial Law;
- Comparative Law;
- Construction Law;
- Corporations II;
- Employment Law;
- Environmental Law;
- Family Law;
- Français juridique – droit public;
- Gender and the Law;
- Global and Domestic Governance of Tainted Finance;
- Human Rights Law;
- Immigration and Citizenship Law;
- Income Tax Law and Policy;
- Indigenous Economic Development and the Law;
- Intellectual Property Law;
- International Business Law;
- International Criminal Justice;
- Internet & E-Commerce Law;
- Issues in Law and Bio Ethics;
- Labour Management Relations;
- Language Rights;
- Law & Popular Culture;
- Law and Resistance;
- Law, Technology, & the Future;
- Legal Aid Clinic;
- Legislative Process;
- Municipal Law;
- Negotiable Instruments and Banking Law;
- Oral History, Indigenous Peoples, and the Law;
- Philanthropy and the Law;
- Preventing Wrongful Convictions;
- Private International Law;
- Public International Law;
- Real Estate Transactions;
- Refugee Law;
- Remedies;
- Research Paper B;
- Scholarly Publications;
- Scholarly Publications: Desautels Review of Private Enterprise & Law;
- Securities;
- Sentencing and Penal Policy;
- Sexual Expression, Conduct and Work in Canada;
- Transitional Justice;
- Transnational Criminal Law; and
- Trusts.
More About University of Manitoba Law
Located relatively close to the borders of Montana and North Dakota and the linear division with Ontario, Winnipeg is Manitoba’s largest city with an estimated population of around 778,000 inhabitants. The provincial capital is associated with several festivals, namely the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Folklorama, the Jazz Winnipeg Festival, and Festival du Voyageur. However, law students would be more interested in the opportunities presenting themselves at the Robson Hall, University of Manitoba’s law school.
The University of Manitoba Law is located on Dysard Road, opposite the Elizabeth Dafoe Library in the Fort Garry campus, not far from an emerging micro peninsula encircled by the Red River. Robson Hall library is named after E.K. Williams.
‘Pueris his dedit Deus scientiam’ is the motto of Robson Hall Faculty of Law. If translated it means, ‘and to these children God gave knowledge’, we can certainly appreciate the motive behind its choice. The University of Manitoba has been offering legal education since 1885.
Interestingly, apart from connecting this institution with historic ties in legal education, we cannot omit the fact that the University’s mascot is in fact… a bison! Stay on this page should you wish to learn more about Robson Hall’s features and what post-graduation opportunities there are in the city known as ‘the Gateway to the West’.
