Seattle University School of Law

Earlier this spring, prospective students connected with faculty, current students, and admissions staff while exploring our Seattle campus, learning about academic programs, and discovering what it means to study law with purpose.

At Seattle University School of Law, students benefit from:

⚖️ A mission-driven legal education
⚖️ Strong connections to Seattle’s legal community
⚖️ Experiential learning opportunities
⚖️ A supportive and collaborative student environment

Seattle U Law also has the first and only hybrid-online program, the Flex JD Program, in Washington state.

Check out a few highlights from Spring Visit Day in this video:

Seattle University School of Law Spring Visit Day 2026 Experience Spring Visit Day at Seattle University School of Law.I...

We had a wonderful time welcoming prospective LL.M. (Master of Laws) students to campus this week. The program allows students who have earned a law degree in a foreign country to earn an LL.M. in as little as one year and sit for licensing exams in many states without having to earn a J.D. Countries represented among the prospective students included Colombia, Egypt, India, Mexico, Russia, Ukraine, and the U.K., among others. They were able to visit with current students and recent LL.M. graduates while learning about the program's offerings from staff and faculty.

For the fourth consecutive year, Seattle U Law will convene leading legal scholars and practitioners for a timely analysis of a major U.S. Supreme Court decision shortly after it is announced. This year's webinar will focus on one of the court's most closely watched cases involving one of the following topics:

- Transgender athletes
- Birthright citizenship
- Gun regulation
- Mail-in ballots
- Independent agencies

The webinar will be held on the first business day following the court's decision. Register today to be notified when the topic and date are announced, learn which experts will join the panel, and submit questions for discussion: https://tinyurl.com/scotuswebinar26

Seattle U Law has been named a top law school in the nation for intellectual property law (IP)! The National Jurist gave Seattle U Law an A ranking for its focus on IP, which is a major part of the Technology, Innovation Law, and Ethics (TILE) Institute. Read the magazine's piece here: https://nationaljurist.com/top-law-schools-for-intellectual-property-law/

The Ninth Annual Innovation and Technology Law Conference, "Indigenous Perspectives on AI: Appropriation, Regulation, and Innovation," brought together a record 850 attendees in a webinar on Friday, June 5. Presented by the Technology, Innovation Law, and Ethics (TILE) Institute and the Summer Institute for Technology, Innovation, and Ethics (SITIE) Initiative, and co-sponsored by the Northwest Center for Indigenous Law (NCIL), the Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental & Innovation Law (SJTEIL), and the American Indian Law Journal (AILJ), this year’s conference brought together leading scholars, practitioners, and Indigenous leaders. Professors Nazune Menka (photo 1, top left), Steven Bender (photo 2, top left) and Steve Tapia (photo 3, top left), as well as NCIL Director Brooke Pinkham (photo 4, top left) and Bree Black Horse '13 (photo 5, top left) served as moderators for the different panels, which covered a variety of topics, from cultural appropriation to Indigenous data sovereignty to natural resource use and AI.

Professor Deirdre Bowen gave clarification to snopes.com about a North Carolina bill that appears to allow for killing a woman seeking an abortion The bill, which is unlikely to pass, would give a fetus the same rights as humans under North Carolina law, including the right to self-defense or defense from others.

"People are interpreting it as, 'Oh, you get to kill a woman,'" Bowen told the website. "No, it's not giving you permission. It's giving you a potential defense that has very specific guidelines [if you are prosecuted for murder]."

She said she is more worried about abusive partners using this bill as a way to keep a woman from seeking an abortion.

"It gives permission for people to engage in violence against women who seek to terminate their pregnancy," Bowen said. "That's a much more likely successful defense."

Would North Carolina bill allow anyone to kill people seeking abortions? Here's what experts think The Republican behind the bill, state Rep. Keith Kidwell, has a history of introducing similar bills with no success.

Assistant Dean of Admission Gerald Heppler was recently interviewed by Reuters. He spoke about Seattle U Law's summer start program, which this year still lets students take out loans under the current student loan system, rather than being held to the cap on federal loans that begins July 1.

The article states, "The student loan changes are fueling much of [the summer program's] added demand, Heppler said. Seattle’s program allows new students to take criminal law over the summer so they can ease into law school and reduce their course load later in the year."

Read the full piece here: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/some-us-law-students-enroll-early-beat-federal-loan-clock-2026-05-08/

Professor Sara Rankin, who directs the Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, was recently quoted by Newsweek. The article examines an increase in homeless encampment sweeps across the country in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 Grants Pass v. Johnson decision, which ruled that cities can enforce anti-camping ordinances even when they don't contain enough shelter space to accommodate everyone in need.

"Shelter capacity nationally remains woefully inadequate relative to need, and Grants Pass provided no incentive for municipalities to close that gap," Rankin told the publication. "In fact, the opposite may be true: if a city can clear a camp without offering shelter and face no legal consequence, the political pressure to invest in shelter beds diminishes."

Read the full piece here:

How a major Supreme Court ruling impacted homeless encampments New research found homeless encampment sweeps more than doubled after the Supreme Court's Grants Pass ruling.