Mission, Goals and Values

Vanderbilt University is a center for scholarly research, informed and creative teaching, and service to the community and society at large. Vanderbilt will uphold the highest standards and be a leader in the:

• quest for new knowledge through scholarship;
• dissemination of knowledge through teaching and outreach;
• creative experimentation of ideas and concepts.

In pursuit of these goals, Vanderbilt values most highly:

• intellectual freedom that supports open inquiry;
• equality, compassion, and excellence in all endeavors.

The mission of Vanderbilt University Law School is to educate leaders who contribute to the advancement of justice. To achieve this goal we provide students with a rigorous program of legal education, in an intellectually vibrant community of teaching and scholarly excellence that prepares them for admission to the bar and for effective, ethical, and responsible participation as members of the legal profession.

Learning Outcomes

In furtherance of our mission, Vanderbilt University Law School has established learning outcomes that shall, at a minimum, include competency in the following:

• Knowledge and understanding of substantive and procedural law;
• Legal analysis and reasoning, legal research, problem-solving, and written and oral communication in the legal context;
• Exercise of proper professional and ethical responsibilities to clients and the legal system; and
• Knowledge and understanding of the workings of the regulatory state.

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