Alabama (Birmingham) -- Cumberland School of Law, Samford University -- Accreditation: Full ABA -- Year Founded: 1847

Note: Cumberland Law School is unrelated to the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky, and is no longer a a part of Cumberland University In Lebanon, Tennessee.

Cumberland School of Law is an ABA accredited law school at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and is the 11th oldest law school in the U.S. It is 160 years old and has more than 11,000 graduates. Historically, the school has the distinction of having trained two United States Supreme Court Justices, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Cordell Hull, the father of the United Nations, over fifty U.S. Representatives, and numerous Senators, governors, and judges.

The Fall 2007 entering class consisted of 159 students selected from an applicant pool of over 1200. The class has an average LSAT of 157 and average GPA of 3.27. The top 75th percentile of the class has an LSAT of 159 and 3.52 GPA. The incoming class also has the distinction of having highest percentage of women (48%) in school's 160 year history history. Cumberland has two publications: the Cumberland Law Review and the American Journal of Trial Advocacy.

The law library is a 42,500 net square foot building with over 300,000 volumes and microform volume equivalents.

The school also has four research centers.

Joint degree programs

Cumberland offers 6 joint degree programs:

• JD/Master of Accountancy, JD/Master of Business Administration, in conjunction with the Samford University School of Business,
• JD/Master of Divinity, in conjunction with the Beeson Divinity School of Samford University,
• JD/Master of Science in Environmental Management, in conjunction with the graduate school of Samford University,
• JD/Master of Public Administration, in conjunction with the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences of the University of Alabama at Birmingham,
• JD/Master of Public Health, in conjunction with the School of Public Health of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Foreign programs

• Summer 2006 - Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, England;
• Summer 2006 - Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil;
• Summer 2006 - University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Contact

800 Lakeshore Drive, Birmingham, AL 35229 : Phone: 205.726.2400 : Admissions: 205.726.2702 or 800.888.7213

Foreign Programs

Cumberland School of Law offers opportunities for U.S. law students to study abroad, and for non-U.S. students to study on the Samford campus. Participating U.S. students gain international perspective by studying and living in a legal system and culture different than their own. These programs also enhance the international perspective of students who remain in the U.S., by bringing students from other nations to the Samford campus.

A study-abroad program in Cambridge, England gives J.D. students the opportunity for comparative study of U.S., British, and European Union law, in an historic and attractive setting at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

Cumberland’s Master of Comparative Law (M.C.L.) degree program is designed for graduate lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and legal educators from outside the U.S., who learn about the U.S. legal system and culture; participants spend two summers taking courses in residence at Cumberland (with the option to attend the Cambridge study-abroad program) and write a thesis.

Under a cooperative arrangement between Cumberland and The Norwich Law School at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, British law students have the opportunity to study in the U.S., and Cumberland graduates have the opportunity to study in the U.K. Participating Norwich LL.B students spend a year at Cumberland after their first year of legal studies at Norwich. Two Cumberland J.D. graduates each year are awarded full-tuition scholarships for studies toward an LL.M degree at Norwich.