We intentionally keep our student body small – typically the smallest among top law schools – which enriches this personal approach to legal education. Our faculty “open-door” environment helps to ensure that every student develops relationships with multiple faculty members. At Vanderbilt, everyone shares a common commitment to challenge themselves and each other to excel as legal professionals, with the understanding that mutual support, teamwork, interest in others’ welfare, and respect for others’ ideas are essential to everyone’s professional success.

Vanderbilt’s faculty offers breadth of expertise that affords students ample opportunities to engage in cutting edge legal research themselves through their work on journal articles, semester-long independent study projects and externships, and as faculty research assistants. Elective courses expose students to frontier areas of law created by scientific advances such as DNA data and technological innovations such as AI or cryptocurrency. The Program on Law and Innovation offers courses examining how technology is changing the law and legal practice.

Vanderbilt graduates enjoy national mobility. More than 80% typically take employment out of state, thanks to the school’s global alumni network, solid academic reputation, and long-standing relationships with legal employers in all industry sectors from coast to coast. More than 10% of the members of each graduating class typically secure federal or state judicial clerkships or enter federal legal department Honors Programs.