Advantages of a BA in Law

There are many reasons a student may choose to pursue an undergraduate major in Law. While the BA will not qualify a graduate to practice law, there are many careers in which a knowledge of law is extremely valuable. People in a wide range of careers encounter legal issues on a regular basis. Human resource professionals routinely deal with questions regarding employment, labor, and contract law. Professionals in banking and finance Bankers and financiers work with tax law, corporate law, and securities. The growing field of compliance work requires knowledge of privacy law and intellectual property law. Government workers and people working in regulated industries need a solid understanding of administrative law as it relates to their industries.

In addition, an undergraduate major in Law may be a good way for students to explore their interest in law. An undergraduate can major in Law, and if they find it doesn’t suit them, change majors with relatively little hassle. Students who have earned an undergraduate BA in Law will be in a good position to know whether they want to commit to continuing on to law school and pursuing a career as a lawyer.

The BA in Law does not focus narrowly on law; it includes a wide variety of perspectives on the law from different disciplines. The 42 credit hours required for the BA includes 30 hours of electives in non-law but law-related courses in fields such as sociology, economics, anthropology, psychology, and social work. The School of Law is working with other departments to develop collaborative programs where students can mix-and-match either the Law BA or Minor with a dual major or major-minor combination. For example, the BA in Law will be a great match with either the School of Social Work's new Minor in Community Organizing and Development, or the Department of Sociology's new Minor in Social Justice. We are also pursuing dual majors, and majors with a minor in Law, with economics, anthropology, and other disciplines.

While our tenured and tenure-track faculty teach some of these courses, and others are taught by adjunct instructors, the undergraduate courses are very different from the JD courses. Every undergraduate course at UB complies with current standards for undergraduate pedagogy and assessment (for example, while JD courses tend to be weighted heavily toward a final exam grade, undergraduate courses provide frequent formative assessment and graded feedback, and a final exam may not count for more than 40% of the final grade). Several of the undergraduate law courses include topics also covered in JD courses, but in every case the course has been rethought from the ground up to make it suitable for undergraduate education. There are undergraduate Contract and Constitutional Law courses, but they bear little similarity to the similarly named JD courses. Other courses, such as the three required courses Introduction to the American Legal System, Common Law, and Public Law, do not have counterparts in the JD program; they were developed specifically for the needs of the undergraduate program.

Finally, undergraduate students at UB may register for the accelerated 3 + 3 BA/JD program, which will enable them to enter law school after only three years of undergraduate study. They will then be awarded the BA and JD simultaneously at the end of the traditional three-year JD program. This saves the student one year of undergraduate tuition, while ensuring they receive a full JD education.

More information on the School of Law’s undergraduate BA and Minor programs is on the Undergraduate BA and Minor in Law page. You may also send any questions to Debbie Nasisi and we will be happy to answer.