MSLAW has a sixteen week semester. So, for example, a student enrolled in a three-credit course will have three hours of class-time each week for sixteen weeks. MSLAW expects its students to spend at least three hours outside of class preparing for each hour of class time. Required courses taken in the first year: Business Entities & Operations Civil Procedure and Conflict Resolution Contracts Criminal Law Criminal Procedure Torts Writing & Legal Reasoning Writing & Legal Research Required courses taken after the first year include: Comparison of Massachusetts and National Law** Constitutional Law (must be taken during the second year) Criminal Law (Part-Time Program) Criminal Procedure (Part-Time Program) Evidence (must be taken during the second year) Legal Ethics/Professional Responsibility*** Motions and Litigation Practice Property UCC Writing and Legal Advocacy Although not required, it is recommended that the following courses also be taken: Conveyancing Family Law Federal Taxation Remedies Wills and Trusts MSLAW also requires students to take and pass Assessment Tests: Following the completion of Civil Procedure, Torts, and Contracts at the end of the 1L year, 1L students are required to take and pass the Level 1 Assessment Test at the end of the exam period. Following the completion of Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, and Evidence at the end of the 2L year, 2L students are required to take and pass the Level 2 Assessment Test at the end of the exam period. Following completion of Civil Procedure, Torts, Contracts, Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence, Constitutional Law, and Real Property, 3L students are required to take the Level 3 Assessment Test. The Level 3 Assessment Test will assess a student’s competency in Civil Procedure, Torts, Contracts, Criminal Law & Procedure, Evidence, Constitutional Law, and Real Property. For the full text of the rule, visit mslaw.edu/assessment-tests **Students who have not successfully completed all required courses (completing the course with a grade that is not an “F”) PRIOR to beginning Comparison will not be allowed to register for, or take, Comparison. Students who have not passed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) and submitted a copy of their official pass notification to the Registrar’s Office prior to registration for Comparison, will not be allowed to register for, or take, Comparison. ***Students will not receive a final grade in Legal Ethics until they pass the MPRE and provide the results of that assessment to the Registrar’s Office. Until such time, the grade of “I” (incomplete) will show on student transcripts (unless the Legal Ethics professor gives a student an “F” in the course irrespective of not having passed the MPRE, in which event the grade will be put on the transcript immediately). Once a student completes the actual course in Legal Ethics, s/he will have until the end of the next semester that the course is offered to deliver to the Registrar’s Office a copy of a pass notification (currently, the following Spring semester). This allows the student to participate in three (3) MPRE administrations after completing Legal Ethics to achieve a final letter grade in the course. It also means that students who take the MPRE prior to completing Legal Ethics would have more than three (3) attempts at passing the MPRE. If the student does not deliver to the Registrar’s Office a copy of the pass notification by the end of the next semester that Legal Ethics is offered (currently, the following Spring semester), her or his grade will be changed from and “I” to an “F,” regardless of the grade the professor would have given the student for Legal Ethics. Students who receive an “F” in Legal Ethics will have to retake the course (provided that they otherwise have remained in good academic standing). Please take note that there are significant financial and academic consequences in receiving an “F” in any course, including but not limited to the fact a second “F” in one’s MSLAW career requires an automatic academic expulsion and that an “F” will likely cause an extension of one’s law school education. Students who fail to submit a copy of an official MPRE pass notice to the Registrar’s Office by the end of the next semester that Legal Ethics is offered (currently, the following Spring semester) may submit to the Admissions Committee a petition requesting: (1) a leave of absence to allow them time to focus on the MPRE (which must be passed in order to qualify to sit for the bar exam in Massachusetts); and (2) that their “I” grade be extended for up to a year without the imposition of an “F.” Such a petition will not be allowed unless such students produce documentary proof that they have registered for the next two (2) MPRE administrations. Students who file such a petition may not take any further classes until they have passed the MPRE. Additionally, if a summer session begins after such students have finished Legal Ethics but before such students provide an MPRE pass notification to the Registrar, such students will not be permitted to recommence taking classes unless they attend at least 80% of the workshops given in the Legal Ethics Boot Camp offered by Professors Colby-Clements and Olson during the summer sessions.