J.D. Certificate Program in Litigation & Alternative Dispute Resolution (LADR)

For students who aspire to become litigators or mediators, Chicago-Kent's Certificate Program in Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (LADR) combines trial skills training, negotiation and mediation within a rigorous clinical curriculum. The clinical education piece of this innovative program is based in the C-K Law Group of Chicago-Kent, the school's acclaimed in-house, fee-generating law firm, which works directly with actual clients on criminal defense, civil rights, employment discrimination, family, health, immigration and tax cases. Thirty students are admitted to the program each year.

In addition to alternative methods of resolving conflict, students who enter the LADR Program learn traditional doctrinal and case analysis, theoretical and ethical foundations of law, and comprehensive training in legal research and writing.

The LADR Program places its emphasis on live-client clinical education, offering eight in-house programs that count toward the certificate.

During the program's litigation phase, supervised students work on a variety of cases, including criminal defense, employment discrimination, civil litigation, tax law, federal health litigation, immigration and family law matters. In the mediation phase, students typically work in areas involving juvenile court cases, criminal misdemeanors, employment discrimination, landlord-tenant disputes and small claims court cases.

Such real-world training is invaluable in preparing students to practice as litigators and mediators, perhaps as assistant state's or U.S. attorneys, as public or appellate defenders in the state or federal court systems, as trial lawyers in civil or criminal practice, or as attorneys in the corporate, governmental or nonprofit sectors. 

How to Apply

The due date for applications has passed but you can still apply.  Below you will find a link to submit your application for this program as well as a memo outlining the program curriculum.  To apply for the program, you will need to prepare a personal statement.  You will be asked to upload those documents in the application form link below. 

Please prepare and submit a personal statement limited to two typewritten, double-spaced, 8 1/2 x 11 pages.  Your personal statement may include information regarding the following questions:

  1. Why do you want to be admitted to the Program?
  2. What are your career goals?
  3. How will the program help you achieve those goals?

(To open the file so you can fill in the fields, open the above link and select "open with a different viewer" and choose Adobe Acrobat)

Joint Certificate

J.D. students can now enroll in the joint Certificate Program in Workplace Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution, allowing students to market themselves to potential employers as well-versed in the highly complementary areas of litigation, ADR and labor and employment law.