The Indiana University School of Law—Bloomington provides the highest quality legal education in a relaxed, collegial setting. Located on the beautifully wooded campus of one of the nation's largest teaching and research universities, the Law School offers a unique blend of academic excellence, community, and cultural opportunity.

Program Highlights
The Law Library

Program Highlights

With more than 650 students, drawn from more than 200 undergraduate schools in the United States and abroad, the Law School is small enough to retain its distinctive sense of community and collegiality, while large enough to provide a stimulating, cosmopolitan environment. The Law Library is among the 15 largest in the nation, offering nearly 725,000 volumes, as well as cutting-edge electronic resources. Graduates of the Law School are found in every state and around the world.

With 50 appointed faculty members and a number of practitioners and judges who serve as adjunct faculty, the Law School features a wide variety of specialized courses and small elective classes, as well as extensive faculty-student interaction.

The educational program of the Law School is designed to prepare its graduates for the many roles lawyers may play in the United States and abroad. In addition to engaging in the private practice of law for clients at all income levels, lawyers serve in legal or executive posts for a variety of government agencies, business organizations, and educational institutions.

As a member of a profession, an attorney is called upon to provide civic and political leadership and to devote time to the public interest. The community often entrusts the lawyer with offices in local, state, and national government. Global economic and political changes are placing new demands on the profession and providing new opportunities for its members.

To meet the diverse challenges its graduates will encounter, the Law School stresses the development of reasoning ability, verbal and writing skills, and interpersonal skills. The student becomes familiar with the basic institutions, rules, and doctrines of the legal order, to appreciate their development in social context and historical perspective, and to understand the processes by which the legal order is adapted to meet social needs.

In addition, students have the opportunity to develop extensive knowledge and substantive experience in key areas of legal specialization. The Law School offers leading programs in a variety of important specialities, including securities, environmental law, communications and information law, tax, and global and international law. With other departments of Indiana University, the Law School also offers a number of joint degree programs and opportunities for interdisciplinary study. In addition, the Law School provides clinical opportunities and intensive training in the preparation and litigation of trials, as well as in alternatives to litigation.

The school has an innovative program to assure that its graduates have the necessary writing skills to meet the demands of practice now and in the future. In the first year of law school, students work in small groups under the supervision of a lecturer and the director of legal research and writing to become familiar with the conventions and requirements of legal writing. In the second year, students select a regular substantive course in which they further exercise and sharpen their writing skills in a small-group setting. During the third year, they complete a substantial research and writing project.

Students who are interested in studying abroad have a number of programs and locations to choose from. The Law School offers semester-long programs in London, Paris, Barcelona, and Hamburg, with even more options during the summer. For more information about opportunities for foreign study, see the Special Programs section of this bulletin.

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The Law Library

The Law Library is one of the most invaluable attractions of the Law School, with an extensive research collection, state-of-the-art computer facilities, a variety of comfortable study areas, and a five-story atrium facing Dunn Woods.

During their three years of law school, students spend many hours in the Law Library. Whether sitting at a carrel, studying with a friend in a conference room, or curled up in an easy chair in the reading room, students can always find an inviting place to study. In the relaxed environment of the Law Library, students have an opportunity to chat with friends or read a newspaper in the library lounge, share a pizza in a conference room, or watch a movie in one of the A-V rooms. Study facilities for students with disabilities include carrels designed for wheelchairs and study rooms for vision- and hearing-impaired students.

With nearly 725,000 volumes, the Law Library is one of the 15 largest law libraries in the country and the largest in the state of Indiana. The library includes a first-rate research collection in Anglo-American law as well as outstanding holdings in international and foreign law. In addition to being a depository for U.S. government publications, the Law Library is one of only 11 law school libraries that serve as depositories for the paper records and briefs of the U.S. Supreme Court. Librarians who specialize in law provide training in research techniques as well as reference assistance. The library's excellent collection, helpful staff, and beautiful facility provide an exceptional environment for the careful preparation and effective research necessary for the study of law.

The Law Library is recognized as a national leader in computer applications in legal education. The online catalog provides access to the complete holdings of the Law Library as well as more than seven million volumes in the University Library system. Web-based and CD-ROM technology provide new methods of research and computer-assisted instruction. The library's three-room media center provides a computer classroom and the latest in computer equipment. Through Internet access in the center, students can utilize systems specific to law, such as LEXIS and WESTLAW, or access the rapidly expanding national and international networks. Students can bring their own laptop computers to the library and connect to the university's network at study carrels, in library conference rooms, and in the Laptop Room or they can take advantage of the Law School's wireless connection capability. With a personal computer and modem, law students can also access many of these resources from home.

As we enter a new century, the well-prepared lawyer must be able to bridge the print and computer environments, balancing traditional research methods with innovative systems technology. At Indiana University, we are committed to maintaining a print collection of the highest quality while serving the technological needs of the lawyers of tomorrow.

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