UAlberta Law – a Detailed Law School Review

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UAlberta Law is an innovative and prestigious destination for domestic and international students who want to study law in Canada. In this overview of the Faculty of Law, you will learn about admissions and applications, the syllabus, and the financial aid opportunities available to those enrolled in this law degree program.

Law School Summary

Below you will find what makes this school of law unique compared to its Canadian counterparts.

Strengths of U of A Law

The main strength of the University of Alberta’s legal department is its graduate success. Deemed the second most ‘elite firm hiring’ graduate Law school in Canada, roughly 92-95% of the University of Alberta’s Law graduates secure articling clerkships immediately after (or within a very short period) completing their degree.

The University of Alberta Faculty of Law also hosts the largest student-led law clinic in Canada – the Student Legal Services founded in 1969. Moreover, there are affiliations with the Health Law Institute, the Alberta Law Reform Institute and the Centre for Constitutional Studies.

Find out about the UK’s 2-Year Senior Status LLB.

Special Qualities of U of A Law

The University of Alberta Law School is not purely academic – it is equally career-orientated. A unique quality of it are the seminars run for topics, such as articling, court clerkships, business and etiquette. Also Public Law Day, the Career Day, and the Small Firm Career Day, allow students and their potential employers get to exchange ideas.

Law schools are typically differentiated by their liaisons with law firms. Not to take too much time explaining this – simply check what scholarships fall under the funding of law firms. You would be left astonished as to how popular the University of Alberta Faculty of Law is when it comes to business funding to ensure that future recruiters have a variety of students under their spotlight. Dentons LLP and Norton Rose Fulbright head the list, closely followed by Ogilvie, Miller Thompson and Borden Ladner Gervais amongst others.

The University is just as varied for its exchange programs as it is for its law firm connections. UAlberta Law Exchange programs are work placements that are run in cooperation with the states of Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

By chance, have you ever come across the names of ‘Draculaw’, ‘The Wizard of Laws’, ‘Charlie and the Law Factory’, ‘Harry Lawter’, ‘Monsters LLP’ and ‘Scooby-Doo: Long Paw of the Law’? What if we told you that these are all part of the University of Alberta Law School annual charitable plays!

UAlberta Law Admissions

December 1 of the preceding year is the admission deadline. Although personal statements may be handed until February 1 of the intake year make sure to complete your UAlberta Law Applicant Profile by the original deadline.

Personal Statement

Applicants must outline their motivation to study law in the UAlberta Law Personal Statement in under 1,000 words. They can highlight their academic, professional, extracurricular, and personal achievements.

Undergraduate Degree and GPA

Any undergraduate degree of at least three years in duration and 90 credits will determine the initial eligibility for the course. Yet, when it comes to the value of the undergraduate grade point average (GPA) – the criterium is much more rigid there: 3.8 out of 4.0.

LSAT

It is estimated that an LSAT score of a minimum of 160 will partially ensure one’s first-year place. Keep in mind that the higher the LSAT score is, the more admission certainty there is, but also the likelier it is that an LSAT scholarship or a bursary may be awarded. LSAT scores dating up to five years prior to the application are also accepted.

Transcripts

Academic transcripts must be forwarded to U of A Law.

Indigenous Applicants

Indigenous candidates must also submit their resumes and two letters of reference.

International Students

Canadian citizens with English as a second language and non-native English speakers from abroad must ensure that they comply with the English Language Proficiency criteria available in full detail on the University’s ‘Admissions’ page.

Upper Year Applicants

Second Year applicants with undergraduate credits of between 60 and 89, being in the top 90 percentile of LSAT takers and with a GPA of 3.7 would also be eligible to enrol at the University of Alberta Law School

Enrolment: UAlberta Law Admission Statistics

2015 saw 1,200 applications for entry into Year One of the Juris Doctor program, although we are left unclear as to how many actually made it through all the application stages.

Two years after that, almost one in every five candidates (17.4%) secured a place at the School of Law of the University of Alberta, which equals to 185 successful applications out of 1060 submissions during 2017.

It is undisclosed how many applications were submitted in 2020, yet, we are conscious of the fact that the pandemic may well have been the chief factor for the decrease of first-year places to 142.

2021 enrolment rates returned to the previous levels of 185 successful first-year offers out of 1,275 applications. This translates to an acceptance rate of 14.5% – this is still a good percentage, bearing in mind that other law schools in Canada take twice as fewer students as in the US.

In total, 525 law students are present across the three-year JD program.

Student Finance Information

Tuition at UAlberta Law

Albeit the change in fees, the most convenient way to overview the corresponding expenses to a law degree for domestic and international students remains the table below:

Scholarships at U of A Law

The University of Alberta Law has fractioned its $1.3 million CDN financial aid budget into various awards. Be it scholarships or bursaries, based on thriving academia within the course, LSAT scores, financial need, community service, student life engagement, student pedigree etc.

• A fifth of all the differential fees collected circulate in the form of student support bursaries: in total, $360,000 CDN are returned back to students.
• Financial aid is also typically awarded on the condition of excelling in particular modules, e.g. Constitutional Law, Property Law, Oil and Gas Law, Estate Planning, Human Rights, Mediation Advocacy, Criminal Law, Law and Medicine, Immigration Law, Administrative Law and Taxation.

Some of the more notable financial awards include:

• The Dr. Alexander Smith Q.C. Bursary across all years of the JD program worth $8,100 CDN per year;
• The Scotiabank Award for Law Students totalling $30,000 CDN to be paid over three years;
• The President’s Scholarship in Law of $5,000 CDN yearly;
• The $6,000 CDN Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP Scholarship;
• The F.R. (Dick) Matthews Q.C. Excellence Scholarship in Law of three annual payments exceeding $16,000 CDN;
• The Malcolm MacIntyre Memorial Scholarship of $3,700 CDN;
• The David Johnston Law Scholarship of $10,000 CDN;
• The Horace Johnson Memorial Scholarship in Law surpassing $6,000 CDN;
• The Harold Lawrence Hawe Bursary of $30,000 awarded to two students;
• The Faculty of Law Undergraduate Scholarship fund of $189,000 CDN;
• The Faculty of Law Entrance Scholarship fund of $50,000 CDN; and
• The Blake Cassels & Graydon Second Year Scholarship of $10,000 CDN in installments payable to two students.

Scholarships are a good way to connect current law students with:

• Former students from various law classes throughout the decades;
• The history of deceased private donators; and
• Law firms across a wide legal spectrum, namely:
  • Bennett Jones LLP;
  • Bishop & McKenzie LLP;
  • Blake Cassels & Graydon LLP;
  • Borden Ladner Gervais LLP;
  • Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP;
  • Chomicki Baril Mah LLP;
  • Dentons Canada LLP;
  • Duncan & Craig LLP;
  • Emery Jamieson LLP;
  • Felesky Flynn LLP;
  • McCarthy Tétrault;
  • McMillan LLP;
  • Miller Thomson LLP;
  • Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP;
  • Ogilvie LLP;
  • Stikeman Elliott LLP; and
  • Witten LLP.

In finalizing the ‘Scholarships’ section of our article, we cannot proceed without highlighting the exclusive Holocaust Remembrance Essay Competition consisting of a $2,000 CDN prize.

• All University of Alberta Law students are eligible to apply.
• They must submit a 7,500-10,000-word essay (incl. references) on an issue drawing together the times of the Holocaust and Law – this may, for instance, be thematically orbited around human rights.

The Curriculum at U of A Law

The law program is made of a wide variety of courses that allow students to develop skills needed to become legal professionals.

First-Year Juris Doctor

Year One courses cover all modules integral to one’s legal education and these include the following seven:

• Foundations of Law;
• Legal Research and Writing;
• Contracts;
• Criminal Law;
• Torts;
• Constitutional Law; and
• Property Law.

No elective modules are offered during this stage of the course, however, as you will find out – this is not the case for the upper years of the program.

Second and Third Years Juris Doctor

The upper-year modules falling under obligatory completion are brought down to:

• Administrative Law;
• Corporations;
• Civil Procedure;
• Evidence;
• Professional Responsibility; and either
• Jurisprudence; or
• Legal History.

Electives

The University of Alberta offers optional modules across various areas of the law, such as:

• The Administrative Process/Public Law;
• Advanced Private Law;
• Corporate/Commercial Law;
• Criminal Law;
• Estates;
• Family Law;
• Health Law/Law & Medicine;
• Human Rights;
• Indigenous Law;
• Intellectual Property;
• International Law;
• Labour & Employment;
• Land Law;
• Legal Theory;
• Litigation & Lawyering skills;
• Moots;
• Natural Resources/Environmental Law; and
• Taxation.

More About Alberta Law School

Established 109 years ago, the University of Alberta Law is anchored at the vibrant city of Edmonton – a provincial capital with close to 1.5 million inhabitants, making it the fifth-largest Canadian municipality.

The University campus is made of 150 buildings and attracts just short of 40,000 students, thereby centering itself as a key economic booster for Edmonton and the province of Alberta. UAlberta Law Library welcomes students throughout the year, and is home to countless legal volumes.

By Georgi Minchev