UC College of Law kicks-off new year

The University of Cincinnati College of Law welcomed 135 students and 16 LLM attorney students as the newest members of the Cincinnati Law Bearcat family this week.

This year’s incoming class features a first for the College of Law: it is comprised of 60 percent women and 40 percent men—the first time in Cincinnati Law’s history with this level of female representation. This follows a three-year national trend where the number of women continue to outpace men in law school classrooms, according to data released by the American Bar Association and compiled by independent legal resource company Enjuris.

This first-year class includes students from many top colleges, including Furman University, Kenyon College, Oberlin, The University of Notre Dame, the Ohio State University, California State Polytech, Florida International University, George Washington University, IU Bloomington, Princeton University, Villanova, and the University of Alabama, with the largest contingent coming from the University of Cincinnati.

While most (58 percent) are Ohio residents, they have travelled from states such as Florida, California, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Tennessee, and New York to attend Cincinnati Law.

The class has a median LSAT average of 157 and has collectively spent roughly 65 semesters on the Dean’s List at their respective college and universities.

Many members of the class are the recipients of post-baccalaureate degrees. These include an MBA, master’s degrees in Professional Studies, Public Policy, Music, and Integrated Marketing Communications. One first-year student has both an MS and PhD in chemistry. They are graduates of schools such as Harvard, the London School of Economics & Political Science, Sarah Lawrence College and George Washington University.  

Though many are recent college graduates, some members of the Class of 2022 come to law school after careers in other fields. These positions include a Wyoming rancher, a photographer, an entrepreneur running a coffee shop, a chef, a dancer with the Cincinnati Ballet, a horse trainer with their own business, an inventor with the Procter & Gamble Company, a broadcast news producer, and an interpreter at Korean National Police Agency. Notably, several are veterans, having served in the US Navy and the US Air Force.

The Class of 2022 has big plans. They want to work in the areas of criminal defense or public interest law, pursue a career as a prosecutor for special victim cases, work in sports law or immigration and human rights law, work with the United Nations, defend indigent people, work in the area of climate change policy and/or mitigation, and even serve as an Air Force Judge Advocate General.

The class of 2022 includes students who speak a range of languages, including Somali, Spanish, Arabic, French, Hebrew, Chinese, Turkish, Italian, Urdu, Korean, Japanese, ASL and Mandarin.  They have worked abroad in Singapore, Liverpool, China, London, New Zealand, Colombia, France, Hong Kong, Jordan and Japan.

The LLM (master’s degree) program for internationally-trained attorneys and law graduates continues to grow. Now in its eighth year, the LLM program boasts 16 attorney students, including one returning LLM graduate who will be completing the certificate program.  

This year’s participants represent 14 countries from five continents. New countries represented include Afghanistan, Greece, Japan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. Additionally, the class has four Fulbright Scholars and four students from our partner universities in Colombia and Italy. Together, they bring decades of legal practice experience to the Cincinnati Law program.