Student Organizations

Yale Law School has over seventy student organizations, including a wide range of affinity groups, academic interests, political groups, projects, competition groups, clubs, and more, providing many opportunities for students to engage with the community. Students at Yale Law School participate in an extensive range of student organizations. Membership in each student organization is open to all Yale Law School students and the groups renew registration with the school each spring. For more information, visit https://yaleconnect.yale.edu/ylsosa/student-organizations. Students may list student organization events in the online calendar of events (https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/events).

Student Journals

Yale Law School Journals are edited and published by Yale Law School students. The journals collectively provide a set of specialized forums for legal scholarship and commentary across a wide range of fields. They publish articles and shorter analytical pieces by academics, practitioners, policymakers, and students, addressing both theoretical questions and practical legal and policy challenges. There are various opportunities for interdisciplinary connections and study. Operationally, each publication is led by an editorial board (with roles such as editors-in-chief, senior managing editors, submissions editors, and more), with leadership transitioning as each volume is completed. For more information, visit https://yaleconnect.yale.edu/ylsosa/student-run-journals.

Student Participation in Administration

Students participate in the administration of the Law School as follows:

1. There are eleven elected representatives of the student body—three from each J.D. class, one representing the LL.M. and M.S.L. classes, and one representing the J.S.D. class—entitled to be present at faculty meetings and to participate fully in the deliberation of the faculty during these meetings, although the student representatives do not vote.¹ Meetings of the faculty typically are convened to address academic policy matters. Meetings of other governing bodies of the Law School—such as the Governing Board and the Expanded Governing Board, which consist of tenured, tenure-track, and clinical faculty and deans—are often devoted to faculty hiring matters, and student representatives do not participate in those meetings.
2. Student representatives are elected for a term of one academic year, commencing with the beginning of the fall term. Representatives for the second- and third-year classes are elected during the spring of the academic year preceding their term of office. Representatives for the first-year and graduate classes are elected at the beginning of the fall term of the academic year for which they will serve. Elections for all classes are held under the auspices of the student representatives in office at the time of the election.
3. The elected student representatives, and other students selected by appropriate procedures, participate in the work of standing committees of the faculty and, where appropriate, in the work of ad hoc committees. The form and nature of such participation depend upon the character of the work of each committee. All elected student representatives serve on committees.
4. Yale Law School invites students to share any concerns they might have about the Law School’s curriculum, particularly any issues that directly implicate the school’s compliance with the ABA’s Accreditation Standards. Students having such a concern should submit the concern, in writing, to the associate dean for student affairs, who will work with the appropriate administrator to address the issue. The associate dean for student affairs, or another associate dean, as appropriate, will keep a record of all submissions and their resolutions.

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This entitlement is subject to the limitation that on occasion the faculty may feel it necessary to convene as Faculty in Executive Session. In such an event the dean will, to the extent deemed appropriate, advise the student representatives of the holding of the executive session in advance and invite the student representatives to present to the faculty their views on the subject under consideration; under any circumstances student representatives will be advised of the holding of such meeting promptly thereafter. It is, however, the purpose and expectation of the student body and of the faculty that the academic policy business of the school will normally be conducted in meetings in which student representatives participate.

Student Feedback Regarding ABA Standards

Yale Law School is an ABA-accredited law school and is subject to the ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools. The ABA Standards are available at www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/standards.html.

Any prospective, current, or former Yale Law School student who wishes to bring a formal complaint against the Law School alleging a significant problem that directly implicates the school’s program of legal education and its compliance with the ABA Standards should submit the complaint, signed and in writing, to the associate dean of student affairs, the associate dean for academic affairs, or if appropriate another of the Law School’s associate or assistant deans.

The complaint should identify the ABA Standard(s) in question and describe the issue with enough specificity to enable the appropriate Law School associate dean, assistant dean, or other senior administrator to identify and, as appropriate, investigate and respond to the merits of the complaint. The complaint should include the student’s university-provided yale.edu email address or other email address if prospective or former student, telephone number, and street/mailing address to allow further communication about the matter.

The associate dean or assistant dean who receives the complaint will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within fourteen business days, via a message sent to the complaining student’s email address.

Within thirty days of acknowledgment of receipt of the complaint, the associate dean or assistant dean who received the complaint, or if appropriate another of the Law School’s senior administrators, will either meet with the complaining student or respond to the merits of the complaint in writing. The complaining student will either receive a substantive response to the complaint or information about what steps (if any) are being taken by the Law School to address or further investigate the merits of the complaint. If the matter requires further investigation, then within fourteen business days of the investigation’s conclusion, the complaining student will receive either a substantive response to the complaint or information about what steps (if any) are being taken by the Law School to address the merits of the complaint.

Within ten business days of receipt of either a substantive response or information about what steps (if any) are being taken by the Law School to address the merits of the complaint, a complaining student may appeal any decision or course of action regarding the initial complaint to the dean of the Law School. The dean’s decision(s) regarding any appeal will be final.

At the discretion of the dean, the procedures detailed above and associated time constraints may be postponed during times when the Law School is in recess until the following regular session of the Law School.

The Office of Student Affairs and the dean’s office will keep the original complaint and a summary of the response/investigation, appeal, and final disposition of the complaint for a period of ten years from the date of final resolution of the complaint.