Assistant Dean Sowle’s Announcements, November 29 - December 3, 2021
•Spring 2022 Schedule. The Spring 2022 class schedule is available on the Spring 2022 Quick Guide page by clicking here, or by going to the Current Students Portal page and clicking on the Spring 2022 Quick Guide link.
•Registration Instructions. The registration and add/drop dates appear below. Important Note: Initial registration for classes at Chicago-Kent is not conducted on a first-come, first-served basis.. You may register at any time during the initial registration period and still have an equal chance of being admitted into a class as other students within your registration priority group (which is based on your division and your anticipated graduation date). At the end of the initial registration period, we will close down the system and, for any classes that are oversubscribed, determine who will be admitted to the class based on registration priorities.
Initial registration opens: Friday, December 17, 9:00am
Initial registration closes: Wednesday, December 22, 5:00pm
Add/drop period opens: Tuesday, December 28, 9:00am
Add/drop period closes: Tuesday, February 1, 5:00pm
To learn what classes you have been admitted into, you must check the online registration site on or after Tuesday, December 28, 9:00am. Registering for a class during the initial registration period is no guarantee that you will be admitted into the class – you must check the web site on or after Tuesday, December 28, to learn what classes you have been admitted into.
•Intersession classes. Please note that we will have several January intersession classes offered in the week prior to the start of the Spring semester; see pages 11-12 of the class schedule for a list of intersession classes. Please note: First-year students may not take intersession classes.
•Exam Information. Information about exams -- which exams will be fixed, self-scheduled, and take-home, and the dates of fixed exams -- will be provided prior to the start of the Spring semester. (Under our current procedures, we need enrollment information for elective courses before determining which category they fall into.)
•Experiential Course Requirement. Students must complete a total of six credits from an approved list of experiential courses (click here for the list). Most students will already satisfy four of these credits through the required sequence of Legal Writing 3 and Legal Writing 4. However, students who opt for the Legal Writing 4 Equivalency Class (see page 2 of the schedule for information about Legal Writing 4 Equivalency) should consult the list of approved courses to determine whether the qualifying activity counts toward the experiential requirement. Law Review does not count toward the requirement.
•64-Credit Classroom Course Requirement. At least 64 of the 87 credits required for graduation must be in courses that require attendance in regularly scheduled classroom sessions or direct faculty instruction. Clinical coursework counts toward the 64-credit requirement, but externships, extracurricular activities (including credits earned for participation in a law journal, moot court competitions, trial advocacy competitions, or as a Teaching Assistant), and courses taken in another academic unit (e.g., the Stuart School of Business) do not count toward the 64 credits.
•Pass/Fail Limitations for Upper-Level Courses. Certain upper-level electives may be taken pass/fail, subject to the limitations described below; required courses, however, may not be taken pass/fail. Pass/fail registration will open in January shortly before the start of classes.
Although there is no overall limit on pass/fail credits, there are two types of limits to the pass/fail credits you can take:
Pass/fail election: Students may elect up to 6 credits pass/fail during their entire time at Chicago-Kent. This pass/fail election applies to upper-level elective courses that normally are letter-graded; classes that are only offered pass/fail do not count toward this 6-credit limit. The following classes may not be elected pass/fail: (1) required courses, including Professional Responsibility; (2) seminars, whether or not being taken to fulfill the graduation seminar requirement; (3) courses that have been designated by instructors as ineligible for the pass/fail election (these courses are indicated on each semester’s schedule of classes); (4) courses that are graded only on a pass/fail basis (as noted above), such as clinical courses, Moot Court, and Law Review; (5) Financial Services LL.M. courses; (6) Trial Advocacy and Appellate Advocacy courses; and (7) courses taken to fulfill the requirements of any certificate program. Fall pass/fail registration will open shortly before the start of the Fall semester. A student taking a course on a pass/fail basis must earn at least a C to receive a P (Pass). If you pass the course but fail to earn at least a C, you will receive a grade of LP (Low Pass).
Clinic limitation: You may take no more than 24 credit hours toward graduation for clinical courses and externships combined. (Students in the Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Program (LADR) and the Criminal Litigation Program are exempt from this limitation.)
•Graduating Students: Reduced Loads and Tuition Discounts. J.D. students graduating at the end of the Spring semester who need fewer than the minimum number of hours to graduate may take fewer credits without special permission. Taking a reduced load may affect your eligibility for financial aid; please contact the Financial Aid Office if you have questions about this.
In addition, if you will be graduating at the end of the Spring semester, and will be taking more than the 87 credits required to graduate, you may receive a 50% discount on each credit you take over the required 87 credits. If this affects you, please contact me by email no later than Tuesday, February 1, 2021, and I will arrange for the credit to be applied to your account. Please note: Financial aid is not available for any courses you take that are not necessary for you to reach the required 87 credits.
•Registration for First-Year Students. First-year Day Division students should register for Civil Procedure, Property, and Legal Writing 2 for the Spring semester. (Please be careful to register for the Civil Procedure and Property classes listed for your current section, and for the Legal Writing section taught by your current professor.) For their fourth course, full-time Day Division students should also register for one of the options listed below. First-year Evening Division students should register for Contracts, Property, and Legal Writing 2.
1L Your Way. For their fourth course, full-time Day Division students should register for Legislation, or for one of the "1L Your Way" choices described below. If you decide to take Legislation, please register for Prof. Sowle’s section if you are in the Legal Writing sections taught by Profs. De Armond, Mulligan, Aleisa, or Nagel; please register for Prof. Marder’s section if you are in the Legal Writing sections taught by Profs. Debush, Franco, Godfrey, or Johnson.
• First Year Clinic (3 credits): All first-year students were emailed information about the First Year Clinic program and how to apply. If you were accepted into First Year Clinic, you will receive instructions on how to register.
• Electives: We have designated certain courses as automatically available for first-year students; see page 2 of the class schedule for the list. With permission, students may take other electives that fit their schedules (requests should be sent to me). If you take an elective, you will be in class with upper-level students. Please note: Upper-level required courses may not be taken (this includes Constitutional Law, Professional Responsibility courses, Legal Writing 3, Legal Writing 4, and seminars). Depending on demand, we may not be able to accommodate all first-year students who wish to take an elective, although we are hopeful there will be sufficient spaces available for all interested students.
To ensure that all full-time first-year students are assessed on a common set of courses, grades for Legislation or for an elective taken its place will not be considered in calculating Spring class ranks for first-year students or for purposes of probation and dismissals, Law Review selections, or merit scholarships for first-year students. The First Year Clinic option is graded pass/fail and thus won't count into students' GPA's for that reason. Grades for Legislation and electives will be included in all subsequent class rank calculations.
Teaching Evaluations. Teaching evaluations will be done online through the local Web for Students system for all classes, except for clinical classes; we will contact clinical students separately about submitting evaluations. (Please note: Legal Writing 1 evaluations will be done in January.) The forms are available now and will remain online through the last day of classes, Friday, December 3. Once you log into Web for Students, click on the appropriate link(s) in the lefthand menu. (There are specialized forms for Legal Writing 3 and 4; all other classes are under the General Course Evaluations link.)
Teaching evaluations are anonymous and will not be available to professors until grades are turned in. Instructors will review the responses to improve the quality of their instruction and courses. The evaluations are also considered as one important factor in tenure, promotion, and compensation decisions for full-time faculty and are used as a factor in determining the effectiveness of part-time instructors.
Class Schedule for Remainder of Semester. Please note the following dates for the closing period of the semester:
| Monday, November 29 . . . . . . . . . . . . . | Monday classes meet (Labor Day make-up) |
| Tuesday, November 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . | Tuesday classes meet (Rosh Hashanah make-up) |
| Wednesday, December 1. . . . . . . . . . . . | Thursday classes meet (Yom Kippur make-up) |
| Thursday, December 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . | Thursday classes meet (Thanksgiving make-up) |
| Friday, December 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | Last day of classes: Friday classes meet (Thanksgiving eve make-up) |
| and Wednesday classes starting 4:00 & after meet (Yom Kippur eve. make-up) | |
| Saturday, Dec. 4 - Tuesday, Dec. 7. . . . | Read period |
| Wednesday, Dec. 8 - Friday, Dec. 17. . . | Final exams |
Building and Library Hours. The building hours through Friday, December 17, are available by clicking here. The Library's hours for read period and exam period are available by clicking here.
Pass/Fail Revocation Deadline. Students may revoke pass/fail elections and revert to standard letter grading through Thursday, December 2, 5:00pm. To revoke a pass/fail election, go to your Web for Students account and navigate to the appropriate link in the lefthand menu.
Spring 2022 Semester. The class schedule for Spring 2022 will be issued later this week; an email will be sent to all students once it has been posted. Registration for the Spring will take place shortly after the conclusion of the Fall exam period. As with the current semester, classes in the Spring will mainly be in-person. We anticipate having a petition process again for students to request remote attendance if they have specific personal circumstances related to the COVID pandemic. This will include, but not be limited to, situations involving accommodations under the ADA.
1L Your Way. All first-year full-time students will be required to take Civil Procedure, Property, and Legal Writing 2 in the Spring. For their fourth course, they will either take Legislation, or one of the "1L Your Way" choices described below. Part-time day students and evening division students will begin taking electives next Fall (or this Summer if they elect to enroll for the optional Summer term). The final Spring schedule, with further details, will be issued prior to Spring registration in November.
Full-time first-year students will have three options in the Spring:
(1) Taking Legislation (a 3-credit required course).
(2) Taking one of several designated elective classes. The tentative list of classes includes Business Organizations (4 cr.), Criminal Procedure: Adjudicative Process (3 cr.), Employment Relationships (3 cr.), and Patent Law (3 cr.). (Please note that this list is subject to change.) Students may also petition to take other elective classes that fit their schedules; petitions will be considered on a case-by-case basis in consultation with the professors teaching the courses. If you take an elective, you will be in class with upper-level students.
(3) Taking the First Year Clinic option (3 credits; see the description below). Applications for Spring 2022 Clinic spots, including for first-year students, are available by clicking here.
First-year students who choose to take an elective or the First Year Clinic will be required to take Legislation in the Fall of their second year. To ensure that all full-time first-year students are assessed on a common set of courses, grades for Legislation or for an elective taken its place will not be considered in calculating Spring class ranks for first-year students or for purposes of probation and dismissals, Law Review selections, or merit scholarships for first-year students. (As noted below, the First Year Clinic option is graded pass/fail and thus won't count into students' GPA's for that reason.)
We may not be able to accommodate all first-year students who wish to take one of the designated electives or the First Year Clinic, although we are hopeful there will be sufficient spaces available for all interested students. If there are insufficient spaces, we will conduct a lottery to select the students.
First Year Clinic: The First Year Clinic option allows J.D. students at the beginning of their law school career to experience a clinical internship with one of the C-K Law Group in-house practices. Students enrolled in the program become actual members of a clinic. In addition to weekly section meetings with your supervising professor, there is a weekly plenary classroom session that covers lawyering activities that arise within real life law practice. The available practice areas include criminal defense, civil litigation, plaintiff’s employment law, family law, federal health litigation, immigration law, mediation, and tax law. Depending on the practice area and each professor's caseload at the time, students may be exposed to such activities as: legal and factual research, client interviews, document drafting, discovery review, administrative hearings and negotiations, trial team strategy sessions, court appearances, and motion calls. The First Year Clinic will be graded on a pass/fail basis only. First Year Clinic may only be taken for 3 credits (the 4-credit options are not available to first-year students). Only full-time first-year J.D. students are eligible.
COVID-19 Policies and Procedures for Fall 2021. The Law School's current policies and procedures for addressing the pandemic. If you have any questions, please email me at ssowle@kentlaw.iit.edu.
Classrooms for Remote Use. We have reserved rooms at the Law School for you to use if you won't have sufficient time to travel from home to school (or vice versa) in between your remote class and an on-site class you have the same day. These rooms will remain the same throughout the semester. Click here for the list (by course). Please note: You will each connect to class individually in Zoom and should have earphones or headphones with you.
Wearing Masks and Reporting Violations. In conformity with university policy and City of Chicago requirements, everyone is required to wear masks in the building, including in classrooms. For everyone's safety, please ensure that your mask is covering your mouth and your nose at all times.
You may remove your mask only while consuming food or beverages, which is permitted only in the cafeteria and in the recently-opened seating space on the 6th floor (just off the elevator lobby). We have set the tables in all of these spaces (including, now, the 3d floor cafeteria area) to maintain social distancing. Please do not move the seats or the tables in these areas.
If you witness any member of the community violating these policies, and you do not feel comfortable requesting that the person put a mask on, please either email me or, if you prefer to remain anonymous, please complete this form and I will address the issue with the person. You should also contact me (or use the form) to report any other safety issues you observe in the building.
Counseling Services. This is a reminder that the university provides counseling services free of charge for students. Click here for details on the available resources, including individual counseling through Skylight Counseling Services. In addition to resources available through the university, the Lawyers Assistance Program also provides assistance to law students. LAP provides free and confidential assistance to members of the Illinois legal community, including students, and can help you with issues of addiction, stress, anxiety, depression, focusing, worries about the character and fitness process, and having a successful first-year transition. Click here for more information about LAP and the services it provides.
Joke of the Week. What do you get when you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter? Pumpkin pi.