Frequently cited as the “Harvard of the South”, Duke Law School no longer needs any mention of its Ivy League counterpart to inspire recognition. Recently ranked 10th by the US News Law School ranking and praised by American Bar Association’s site evaluation committee as one of the strongest schools in the country, Duke Law School is definitely among the first-tier law school in the US as well as worldwide. An outstanding academic reputation, free spirit and beautiful campus are among the law school’s many attributes.

Academia at Duke Law

Just like other leading law schools, Duke Law provides curriculums with great diversity for students to pursue a field of interest. Despite first year core classes including Constitutional Law, Civil Procedure, Contracts, Criminal Law, Property, Torts, and a legal research and writing course, Duke Law’s strong programs include corporate and commercial law, public policy and public interest law. Recent faculty hires have bolstered the academic standings of the intellectual property law, international and comparative law, and tax law departments. Classes are kept deliberately small, rarely exceeding 70 students. Advance courses offer a wide range choice of electives, seminars, and clinical programs.

Duke Law also possesses 9 academic journals and over thirty extra-curricular law school activities from which to choose, including moot court competitions, student government, and volunteer work. Maybe a direct depiction of Duke Law’s outstanding academic quality is its highest New York Bar Exam pass rate of all US law schools. A reported 97% of students that take the exam pass at first sitting. Duke’s overall student pass rate is 100%. This record is compared with all law schools across the nation, where on average 77% of students pass the New York Bar exam on their first sitting.

The Duke way

Found in 1868, Duke Law has a long and extraordinary history. Meanwhile, the Law School always keeps its spirit young and energetic. A vivid representation such vigorous spirit is their technologically savvy students. Cited as one of the two most wired schools in the country, all classrooms at Duke Law have power hook-ups at every seat, videoconferencing capabilities, and web access. All students have a laptop computer and first year students even have the opportunity to learn contracts on a multi-media DVD.

The most distinctive aspect of Duke Law’s free spirit might be its openness. Every Duke Law student as well as faculty member will received a diurnal email call Duke Law Daily, which introduces all the events at the law school for the following 3 or 4 days including but not limited to lunch-time seminars, field trip studies, firm interview opportunities and social gatherings. There are abundant resources while all the chances are open and equal to everyone-one only need to sign in advance and show up at the event. During one short semester, I have joined the field trip to the North Carolina federal and State prison and wandered beside inmates who were working at a reformatory factory; I have attended the breakfast with the Duke Law School Dean and shared our views on the financial crisis’s impact on legal employment market; I have had an individual interview with the general commissioner at Durham Meditation Center and heard a court trail in Durham city court accompanied by her; not to say the countless lunch-hour seminars and volunteer works. It is Duke Law’s openness enable me to have such great experiences and I believe with this free spirit, everyone must have a diverse but colorful life at Duke.

The warm and efficient faculty showed another aspect of Duke Law’s spirit. I was deeply impressed by the warmth of the faculty in international office that they could call every one by name the first day during orientation week. The faculty members are also helpful and highly efficient. Law students can send their suggestion to the student affair office by email or simply drop a note. One week after some students had complained that the price in the law school’s cafeteria was too high, the café adjusted their price.

There shall be more angles of the school’s young and free spirit. The current Dean of Duke Law has precisely concluded it as “The Duke Way”: a combination of intellectual engagement at the highest level, a commitment to serving the common good and extraordinary collaboration and collegiality that sets us apart from other law schools. We take scholarship, service, professionalism, and teaching seriously; but we try not to take ourselves too seriously.

Location

Duke Law locates in Durham, North Carolina. Many people consider the place to be too remote that it is “in the middle of nowhere”. However, the serenity of Durham creates the best study atmosphere, especially for law school study. As many people recall, the first year in law school is “study to death” and the study in law school is really intense. Thus, the quiet surrounding of Duke Law help students concentrate on their study as well as release them from the high-pressure modern working environment. Moreover, the gorgeous Duke University campus and its adjacent area in Durham add more flavor to the life at Duke Law. The Duke Gardens are located in the center of the university’s campus, providing an ideal venue for sunbathing, strolling, or proverbially taking time to smell the roses. If students prefer a more untamed outdoors, the university is surrounded by miles of the Duke Forest, in which they can hike, bike, or even visit the Primate Center. Duke is also famous for its sports. Duke football and basketball are both traditional strong teams and the game season always becomes the whole university’s festival. The Duke gym is within 5 minutes from law school and enables students to lead a healthy life style by encouraging them take a daily study break by exercising. Many of my LLM classmates have expressed how they appreciate the quietness at Duke Law. Though study is hard, the temperate weather, together with peaceful as well as colorful life becomes a great contrast to the overwhelming, competitive life in big cities.

Meanwhile, Duke Law is by no means remote. Close to Washington DC, it has several research bases as well as internship programs there. For example, Environmental Law, which is Duke Law’s traditional strong specialization, has its regular research center in DC. A program called Duke Law in DC, offers internship opportunities in governmental affairs every spring. The law school is also equipped with updated working information, as its excellent academic reputation attracts outstanding law firms come to recruitment presentations and on-campus interviews every year.

Strong tie with China

Duke Law also preserves a close relationship with China, which is particularly manifested as its great alumni resources. Since 1985, dozens of lawyers have graduated from Duke Law School who now practice in China, or who have strong professional–and personal–ties to the PRC. They include partners with large international and domestic Chinese firms. To name just a few: Ma Hongli ’89, managing partner of Jun He Law Office in Shanghai, China’s largest domestic firm; Danian Zhang ’89, the managing partner of Baker & McKenzie’s Shanghai office; Winston Zhao ’88, the managing partner of Jones Day in Shanghai; and Zhang Xuebing ’98, the managing partner of Beijing’s Zhonglun Jintong and one of China’s leading real estate and property development lawyers.

Duke Law graduates with ties to China also include academics and policy-makers. Professor Gao Xiqing ’86, who this year received the Law School’s International Alumni Award, and who returns annually to lecture at Duke, has been a particularly influential reformer–a key figure in China’s development as a capital market and now, as vice chairman of the National Council for Social Security Fund, in charge of managing his country’s pension reserves.

Many alumni mentioned above are life members of the Law School’s Board of Visitors and still visit Duke Law regularly. Sometimes they can bring in some unexpected information. During my stay at Duke this fall, Li Xiaoming ’90 happened to come back to host a reception for fellow alumni, who is the managing partner of the Beijing office of White & Case, with a practice focused on general corporate and structured finance, and mergers and acquisitions. All Chinese LLMs had a gathering with him, during which he had been talking for more than 3 hours, about his prediction on Chinese legal market as well as his life experience. I learned a lot from that conversation and always got similar feeling during my one semester at Duke Law, where there were always outstanding people to meet, and great things to be expected. Li Xiaoming once said, “Without Duke Law, I would not be who and where I am today”. I am also grateful for having the chance to be in exchange at Duke Law, which is definitely a choice as worthwhile as I was admitted to Peking University Law School three years ago.