UBC Law School – Peter A. Allard School of Law: Guide

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The University of British Columbia is home to one of the province’s best law schools, Peter A. Allard School of Law (UBC Law). It is one of Canada’s oldest and most influential legal education providers. This article will summarize strengths and special qualities, admission requirements and rates, financial information, and the curriculum of this Juris Doctor program.

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Law School Summary

Below you will learn more about the unique qualities of this legal institution.

Strengths of University of British Columbia Law School

UBC has an incredible historic ‘from zero to hero’-type of narrative. Its facilities previously modestly stood as World War II huts, yet these university schooling shortcomings were rapidly upgraded to the modern and technologically advanced Allard Hall. Currently, Allard Law is one of the top-ranked ones in Canada, as well as in the world, in preparing students for the legal profession.

As you will later read in more detail, UBC’s JD Program is renowned for its ‘specialization courses’ in Aboriginal Law, Business Law, Law & Social Justice, and Environmental & Natural Resource Law. Moreover, its emphasis on experiential learning through clinics, externships, and moots allows students to excel in their professional development.

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Another reason behind applying here is the astounding career support network. UBC’s Career Services Office employs a team of lawyers to guide law students through researching and preparing for opportunities, with the various application process stages chiefly falling under its spotlight. This is crucial for those, who may need a slight degree of confidence in gaining summer placements or internships and subsequently securing articling positions.

Special Qualities of University of BC Law School

UBC’s School of Law fuses academic pragmatism and social modernism. This institution indeed puts a lot of emphasis on the academic progress and comfort of individuals. First-year classes number between 45 and 50 students, whereas the entry-year curriculum was dilated to encapsulate a broader number of topics. Students’ progression is catered for by the more personalized teaching, lecturers’ contact, and thorough instructors’ feedback.

It has been remarked that overall assessment techniques have also been modernized in an attempt to reform the solely based scholastic criteria. Less reliance has been placed on 100 percent end-of-year exams to enable more students to deliver high academic performances through consideration of the varied learning methods and student strengths.

In terms of its co-operation with law firms, the School of Law has connections with Dentons LLP, Fasken Martineau Dumolin LLP, Miller Thompson LLP, McMillan LLP, and Gundmundseth Mickelson LLP, which are all academic scholarships’ sponsors. This is a good prerequisite that they carry tight surveillance to spot and recruit the best talent afterwards. Moreover, UBC Allard also introduced practical work placements in the Business Law Clinic founded in conjunction with Richards Buell Sutton LLP.

The Allard School of Law is in close liaison with the University of Hong Kong and the Melbourne Law School at The University of Melbourne. These partnerships offer some enriching exchange programs both academically and socially.

In addition, UBC offers international exchange programs with further education institutions in supplementary far-reaching destinations: North America, Europe, and New Zealand also partner with UBC to lay more programs for further studies’ continuation.

UBC Law Admissions

Candidates that are set to become first-year law students have between September 15 and December 1 to apply. Compared to upper-year students, who should do so between September 15 and April 30. The former pair of deadlines is also the due date for LSAT submissions.

LSAT Score UBC Law

UBC law school requirements also consist of an average LSAT score of around 166 as a minimum or more (this would equal the top 92 percentile).

GPA

Additionally, your undergraduate degree’s grade point average is preferably to be at least 83% or 3.8. There are no preferences as to one’s undegraduate degree, yet the only precondition is that it must be worth 90 credits studied across three or four years.

Necessary Documents

UBC law applications must adhere to the a table with the full set of documents to be submitted for each category of students (e.g. General or Indigenous) is available on UBC’s website, however, on a broader scale they include:

• Post-secondary and law academic transcripts (with the latter being for upper year candidates);
• A Personal Statement split into questions of 400-500 words and a large essay of up to 1,500 words outlining one’s motivation and suitability for the course;
• Any corroborative documentation;
• Two letters of reference;
• Evidence of eligibility for Indigenous candidates;
• A letter of good standing;
• A letter of permission for Transfer students only; and/or
• An evaluation letter from the NCA if educated internationally.

Indigenous Candidates

UBC welcomes Indigenous candidates – they can apply under the General and Aboriginal (First Nations, Métis or Inuit) categories at the same time, but they ought to demonstrate engagements with their local community.

Enrolment Statistics

In general, 600 students are enrolled across all years of the Juris Doctor program. Each year 1,500 candidates enter the race with hopes to be shortlisted in the 300-man offer pool. Subsequently, the 200 course spots will be filled in from there. Thus, the UBC law school acceptance rate is 13.3%.

Student Finance Information

Tuition

This table offers a comparison between the costs related to the Juris Doctor Program for full-time Canadian citizens and International students excluding any financial reliefs.

Scholarships

With an annual bursary fund of over a million dollars, financial support is available to both entry-level and upper-year students in the Juris Doctor program.

There exists a category of scholarships with particular qualification requirements, such as:

• displaying a strong degree of public/community service or leadership;
• having volunteered or completed a work placement; or
• showcased innovative and entrepreneurial traits.

Each scholarship is awarded at the discretion of the school or through submitting a cover letter, a resume, a list of references and/or an application form. One’s heritage status is also taken as a criterium so the Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) and Black communities are also entitled to academic financial aid.

UBC intends to support a wide range of academically talented students, hence has a designated list of scholarships for first year students obtaining academic excellence. They are primarily sponsored by former alumni and law firms and are usually awarded to ‘outstanding students’ on the basis of the recommendation of the faculty of law itself. Here are several of them:

• the Jenkins Marzban Logan Scholarship In Law ($1,000 CDN);
• the Miller Thompson LLP Entrance Scholarship Law ($2,500 CDN);
• the T. Wing Wai Entrance Scholarship ($6,250 CDN);
• the Malcom Macintyre Memorial Entrance Scholarship In Law ($10,000 CDN) and the Harold F.; and
• the Anne Bedner Uphill Scholarship In Law ($46,400 CDN; multiple awardees).

The Curriculum of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law

First-year

The Juris Doctor program’s first year proves to be dynamic in its nine mandatory courses (collectively amounting to 32 credits) to be studied in classes of up to 50 people:

• Indigenous Settler Legal Relations;
• Contracts;
• Criminal Law & Procedure;
• Property Law;
• Torts;
• Transnational Law;
• Introduction to Public Law and the Charter;
• Legal Research & Writing; and
• Aboriginal and Treaty Rights.

Second and Third Years

UBC law courses for the second and third years are listed below. During the last two academic years of the law program, students must complete courses worth 60 credits in total.

• Federalism;
• Jurisprudence and Critical Perspectives;
• Administrative Law;
• Ethics and Professionalism;
• Seminar or Directed Research; and
• Experimental equipment, whereby this could take place in the form of:
  • clinical programs;
  • competitive moots; or
  • courses, including Corporate Solicitors’ Workshop, The Allan McEachern Course in Trial Advocacy, Trial Advocacy, Negotiation and Dispute Resolution and Foundations of Dispute Resolution.

Electives

UBC refers to electives as ‘specialization courses’, and they can be done in:

Aboriginal Law;

• The theory under this course concerns modules gravitated towards legal, economic, taxation, contract, and treaty issues impacting the Indigenous communities.
• The Indigenous Community Legal Clinic and The Kawaskimhon Aboriginal Rights Moot offer chances to test and apply knowledge into practice.

Business Law;

• Modules to be completed under this course include Taxation, Trusts, Commercial Transactions, Securities Regulation, Secured Transactions, and Business Organisations, plus Business Law Capstone.
• Practice makes perfect, so UBC offers paths into the Norton Rose Fulbright LLP Corporate Counsel Externship, as well as The Richards Buell Sutton LLP Business Law Clinic.

Law & Social Justice; and

• This course is suitable for those with an interest in social, political, and economic inequalities, or topics stretching from gender law to immigration and refugee legislation.
• After completing the necessary academic modules, course scholars can participate in the International Justice and Human Rights Clinic or the Rise Women’s clinic.

Environmental and Natural Resource Law.

• Its sub-modules include Sustainable Development Law, Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law, International Law, and Natural Resources and Mining Law.
• Practical opportunities under this course are materialized in participation in The Willms and Shier Environmental Law Moot and/or the Global Environmental & Resources Law Externship Programme.

More About Peter A. Allard School of Law

Vancouver – is home to the University of British Columbia (UBC) residing in the outskirts of this metropolis. UBC’s campus is separated from Vancouver itself through the barrier-like University Endowment Lands Ecological Reserve.

Deep in the campus peninsula, not too distant away from the Tower Beach and the Pacific Burrard Inlet fjord, rises the Peter A. Allard School of Law. It was named after its exceptionally generous alumnus donator, who gifted over $42 million CDN to construct the Law School.

Apart from Peter Allard, UBC’s alumni network includes Supreme Court Justices, diplomats, politicians, Attorney Generals, and Canada’s first and only female Prime Minister – Kim Campbell.

Georgi Minchev