Applicable only to students admitted during the 2024-2025 academic year.
Master of Legal Studies
School of Law.
Graduate Degree
Admissions Requirements.
Master of Legal Studies
Advising
Students will be assigned an academic advisor upon acceptance into the program and should meet with their advisor at least once a semester to review their progress towards graduation. The registrar will conduct a semesterly degree progress report which can be reviewed with the academic advisor. Students may also consult with faculty in their area of study.
Specializations:
To earn a specialization, a student must earn at least 10 units of credit from the course list provided for each specialization, including units earned for any required specialization courses.
The current specializations are:
- Business Law
- Employment & Human Resources Law
- Entertainment & Media Law
- Health Law & Policy
- Government & National Security Law
- Public Interest Law
- Law and Technology
- Environmental Law
With the approval of the Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies and Professional Programs, students may develop their own individualized specialization, but individualized specializations must be materially different from any of the existing standard specializations.
A specialization is not required for Master of Legal Studies degree. Students may choose to pursue a general course of study and not earn a specialization designation.
For additional information, students should consult the program’s website.
Specialization Course Requirements:
To earn a specialization, at least 10 units must be completed in the specialization area. In addition, the following courses are required to earn each specialization:
- Business Law: Law 115. Business Law for Non-Lawyers OR Law 230. Business Associations
- Employment & Human Resources Law: Law 261. Employment Law
- Entertainment & Media Law: Law 305. Entertainment Law OR Law 683. News Media Law in the Digital Age
- Environmental Law: Law 290. Environmental Law & Policy
- Government & National Security Law: None
- Health Law & Policy: Law 326. Health Law & Policy
- Law & Technology: 1) Law 307. Intellectual Property; or 2) Law 306. Patent Law AND Law 302. Copyright Law; or 3) Law 127. Intellectual Property: Copyright and Trademark
- Public Interest Law: One course from “Substantive Law” and one course from “Inequality.”
- Substantive Law
- Law 260. Labor Law I
- Law 261. Employment Law
- Law 267. Federal Indian Law
- Law 273. International Human Rights Law
- Law 282. Education Law and Policy
- Law 285. Local Government Law
- Law 286. Land Use
- Law 290. Environmental Law and Policy
- Law 293. Public Natural Resources Law
- Law 295. Adjudicative Criminal Procedure: Bail to Jail
- Law 301. Art and Cultural Property Law
- Law 316. Disability Law
- Law 317. Family Law
- Law 319. Election Law
- Law 321. Legislative and Regulation
- Law 326. Health Law and Policy
- Law 331. Immigration Law
- Law 350. Energy Law
- Law 363. Tax-Exempt Organizations
- Law 380. State and Local Taxation
- Law 383. Political Asylum and Refugee Law
- Law 389. Prison Law and Policy
- Law 440. Introduction to Food Law and Policy
- Inequality
- Law 214. Civil Rights
- Law 266. Critical Race Theory
- Law 318. Law and Sexuality
- Law 325. Public Benefits Law and Anti-Poverty Policy
- Law 329. Women and the Law
- Law 332. Immigrants’ Rights
- Law 376. Law and Dissent
- Law 429. Capital Punishment in America
- Law 507. Labor Law and Social Policy
- Law 509. Indigenous Peoples, Sustainability, and Climate Change
- Law 558. Political Crimes and Legal Systems
- Law 566. Laws of War & the War (s) on Terror
- Law 584. Human Rights and Sexual Politics
- Law 589. Strategies for Success Human Rights Advocacy
- Law 619. Environmental Justice Law
- Law 629. Topics in Post-Conviction Law and Policy
- Law 637. Good (Native) Governance
- Law 645. Race Conscious Remedies
- Law 653. Advanced Critical Race Theory
- Law 655. Feminist Legal Theory
- Law 667. Voting Rights
- Law 668. The 8th Amendment Punishments Clause
- Law 670. The Sociology of Law
- Law 674. Trafficking in Human Beings: Law and Policy
- Law 677. Muslims, Race and Law
- Substantive Law
Foreign Language Requirement
None.
Course Requirements
Degree requirements: To complete the degree, a minimum total of 26 units of coursework with a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or higher is required.
Core Curriculum: The following courses are required:
- Law 111. Introduction to American Law
- Law 112. Private Law: Property and Contract
- Law 113. Public Law
- Law 114. Legal Analysis and Communication
- Law 115. Business Law for Non-Lawyers (OR Law 116. The Civil Dispute Resolution System OR Law 230. Business Associations)
Registration Requirement: Every student is required to enroll in at least three (3) units of study each semester and may not enroll in more than sixteen (16) units each semester. A student who completes a course that concludes before the end of the semester (e.g. a J-Term course) will earn those units even if the student later drops all full-semester length courses and falls below the three (3) units threshold. A student may petition the program’s Assistant Dean to exceed the sixteen (16) unit maximum with good cause. The maximum number of intensive January term courses a student may take during one January term is two (2) for a total of no more than three (3) units of credit. For purposes of calculating maximum units during spring semester, completed units during a UCLA Law January Term shall not be included.
Medical Doctor (M.D.) and Master of Legal Studies (M.L.S.)
M.D.-M.L.S Articulated Degree Program requires the completion of M.L.S. Course Requirements as stated above, in addition to the requirements for the M.D. degree.
Attendance Requirements:
1. A Master of Legal Studies student who fails to attend classes for two consecutive weeks or a total of ten instructional days during the semester (or the equivalent), without the clearance of their instructors whose classes are missed, may be subject to dismissal from the program by the Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies and Professional Programs and the Dean of Students. A student so dismissed may appeal the decision to the Graduate Studies Committee. A professor may create stricter attendance policies for any given course.
2. For in person courses, it is the Law School’s expectation that MLS students will attend class in person, even when it is not convenient for them to do so. An MLS student’s remote attendance via livestream or access to a video recording of a class meeting or meetings shall be permitted if approved by Center for Accessible Accommodation (CAE) or to ensure adherence to university COVID-19 isolation and quarantine protocols. In addition, the course instructor has discretion to grant exceptions and provide access to live streams or class recordings to individual students on a case by case basis. Requests to attend classes remotely should exceed 16% of a course’s class meetings. Requests to exceed the 16% require special approval from Assistant Dean of Student Affairs after consultation with the instructor and only considered in exceptional circ*mstances. In any event, the student may not be approved to attend more than 33% of the course’s total class meetings remotely via livestream or access to video recordings.
Credits for Internship: With the approval of the Assistant Dean, students may earn credits for relevant internship placements based on the number of hours worked in the placement. Any credits earned for internship hours will not count towards the 26-unit graduation requirement. Students enrolled in internships must simultaneously enroll in a one-unit internship seminar. Credit earned for the internship seminar will count toward the 26-unit graduation requirement and the 10-unit specialization requirement (assuming the internship is appropriate for the area of specialization).
Teaching Requirements
None.
Field Experience
None.
Capstone Plan
There are several ways to complete the capstone requirement:
- Complete a seminar course in the field of specialization and a substantial research paper (25-50 pages with multiple drafts) in satisfaction of the seminar requirement, earning a grade of B or better; or
- Complete a substantial project in conjunction with the Capstone Seminar, earning a grade of B or better.
- Participate in a substantial project as part of one of the School of Law’s Policy Clinics, earning a grade of B or better.
Thesis Plan
None.
Time-To-Degree
Students must finish the degree within four academic years.
| DEGREE | NORMATIVE ATC (Semesters) | NORMATIVE TTD (Semesters) | MAXIMUM TTD (Semesters) |
| M.L.S.T | 2 (Full-Time) 4 (Part-Time) | 2 (Full-Time) 4 (Part-Time) | 8 |
Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification
University Policy
A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.
Special Departmental or Program Policy
None.
