It is with great excitement that I announce The John Marshall Law School and the University of Illinois at Chicago are publicly discussing the possibility of JMLS becoming a part of UIC. If an agreement is reached, JMLS would become Chicago’s first and only public law school.
We are in very early stages of discussion, but the opportunities a permanent relationship with UIC would provide our students, alumni, faculty, and staff are easy to imagine. Of course, these opportunities come with many questions—many of which we simply don’t have answers to yet—but this will be a transparent process, and I will provide further updates as they emerge.
In the meantime, I wanted you to be first to see our official public statement. We’ve also created a joint website with UIC that provides details for some of the initial questions you may have: jmls.uic.edu. We’ll continue to update the website as information becomes available.
Official Statement About JMLS and UIC Public Discussions
The University of Illinois at Chicago and The John Marshall Law School (JMLS) are exploring the benefits of JMLS becoming a part of UIC—creating the first public law school in Chicago. Chicago is one of the few major cities in the United States without a public law school.
Over the past year, UIC and JMLS have informally discussed the advantages such a relationship would offer both institutions and future students. The natural alignment of UIC’s public mission and JMLS’s commitment to provide access and opportunity, and to fill Chicago’s justice gap, present a number of opportunities, including potential interdisciplinary programs for students and research opportunities for faculty at both institutions that bridge the disciplines of law with many of the disciplinary strengths of UIC, including the health sciences, urban planning, public administration, the arts, and business.
Discussions will now broaden to include the constituencies of UIC and JMLS, including faculty, staff, students, alumni, and donors, but remain exploratory. Any final arrangement would require approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees and The John Marshall Law School Board of Trustees, degree approval from the Illinois Board of Higher Education, and approval of both the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar and The Higher Learning Commission, which serves as the regional accreditor for both UIC and JMLS.