The University of Montana School of Law

First Year Program

Under even the best of circumstances, the first year of law school is intimidating: new materials, new concepts and virtually a new language. Our program is designed to ease your transition and equip you with the skills you will need to succeed in law school and in your new career.

Your first year at UM begins with our Introductory Program. During your first couple of weeks of law school, instead of jumping headlong into torts, civil procedure, and criminal law, you will study the American legal system, legal research tools, and alternatives for resolving legal disputes, and you will be introduced to legal analysis and jurisprudence. You will even participate in a mock trial before your first two weeks of law school are complete.

The Introductory Program also includes panels of faculty and lawyers discussing topics ranging from legal careers to the social role and responsibilities of lawyers. From your first day at UM, you will be part of our innovative law firm program. Throughout your first year, you and several classmates will meet once or twice a week with a specially trained upperclass student. You will collaborate on research, analysis, writing, and pretrial advocacy assignments. Do not be surprised if your law firm spawns a study group that works together outlining and discussing all of your classes.

We limit our entering classes to approximately 80 students, so you will never have a class session larger than that. In fact, many of our first-year courses are taught in two or three sections, so you will often have class with only 25 to 40 of your classmates. (Most of our upperclass electives have enrollments of only 15 to 25 students.) This low student/faculty ratio encourages student participation and helps you get to know your professors.  

First-year Required Course Work

Second-year Required Course Work

Third-year Required Course Work

**Minimum number of credits required for graduation: 4

Information on the Bar Exam:

The Montana essay component of the bar exam currently consists of four 60-minute essay questions that cover one or more of the following topics:

Contracts; Torts; Civil Procedure (Federal and State); Evidence (Federal and State); Trusts, probate and wills, guardianships, conservatorships, and estates; Criminal law (substantive and procedural); Business organizations; Real property; Uniform Commercial Code as adopted in Montana (excluding Articles 5, 7, and 8); Domestic Relations; Agency; Workers’ Compensation; Professional Responsibility (including the Rules of Professional Responsibility and the norms of professional conduct); Constitutional Law (Federal and State); and Income (Federal), Estate, and Gift (Federal and State) Taxation.

The Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) consists of six 30-minute essay questions that cover one or more of the following topics: Business Associations (Agency and Partnership, Corporations and Limited Liability Companies); Conflict of Laws; Constitutional Law; Contracts (including UCC Article 2); Criminal Law and Procedure; Evidence; Family Law; Federal Civil Procedure; Real Property; Torts; Trusts and Estates (Decedents’ Estates, Trusts and Future Interests); and Uniform Commercial Code (Negotiable Instruments –UCC Articles 3 & 4, Secured Transactions-UCC Article 9).

The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) is a six-hour, 200-question multiple-choice examination covering contracts (including UCC Article 2), torts, constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, evidence, and real property. 

Another portion of the Montana bar exam is the Multistate Performance Test, which consists of two 90-minute skills questions covering legal analysis, fact analysis, problem solving, resolution of ethical dilemmas, organization and management of a lawyering task, and communication. In this portion, the examiners usually provide the students with a copy of the applicable statutes to be applied. Coverage can include a wide variety of subject matters. For example, one recent MPT was based on the issue of tribal jurisdiction.