Bachelor of Arts in Law

Students will cultivate knowledge and skills from the fundamental domains of law, including: administrative, constitutional, contract, as well as basic procedures in criminal and civil law. Throughout the degree, theoretical principles are grounded in applied, real-world case studiesand examples, equipping the student to use legal tools and insights in a variety of professional settings.

Augmenting these special areas of legal focus, students will demonstrate broader programmatic learning outcomes including critical thinking, oral and written communication, information literacy, ethics, quantitative fluency, broad integrative knowledge, applied learning, and more specific types of specialized knowledge from the liberal studies. These skills are practiced andassessed throughout the degree, in order to ensure graduates have an integrated, well-rounded portfolio of attributes upon graduation.

The bachelor’s degree in law is highly versatile. Graduates from the program can use their knowledge and skills in a variety of disciplines, and students can go on to work in myriad professional settings, including: Adoptions Case Manager, Asylum Officer, Auditor, Civil Rights Advocate, Claims Administrator or Adjustor, Commercial Real Estate Broker, Compliance Officer, Conflict Resolution Specialist, Congressional Staffer, Consumer Safety Officer, Contracts Manager, Corporate Ethics Officer, Environmental Protection Specialist, Financial Compliance Officer, Court Administrator, Export Control Officer, Foreign Affairs Officer, Financial Compliance Officer, Health Care Administrator, Human Resources Specialist, Human Rights Officer,Insurance Broker, Intellectual Property Specialist, International Trade Specialist, Investigator, Jury Consultant, Law Enforcement Agent, Law Librarian, Legal Correspondent, Legal Technology Consultant, Lobbyist, Ombudsperson, Paralegal Specialist, Patent Examiner, Policy Analyst, Politician/Legislator, Probation Officer, Procurement Officer, Public Affairs/MediaSpecialist, Resource Manager, Risk Manager, Social Worker, Victim Advocate, and others.

Furthermore, for those wishing to pursue to graduate studies, this degree also prepares students for a smooth transition into our JD degree programs.

Requirements for the Bachelor of Arts in Law

The degree requires completion of 120 units as follows: 36 units of general education, 33 units of major, and 51 units of electivecourses, including courses taken toward minors. (See Declaring Minors for more information.) Each course listed carries three semester units of credit, unlessotherwise noted. A cumulative grade-point average of 2.00 “C” or higher is required in all courses taken at Golden GateUniversity.

All degree-seeking undergraduate students must complete their English, mathematics and critical thinking requirements withintheir first 27 units at Golden Gate University, unless they have already earned credit for the equivalent courses from another in-stitution and have had those courses accepted in transfer by Golden Gate University. If either Math or English requirements forthe degree have not been satisfied, newly enrolled students must take placement tests to ensure proper placement in the appropriate Math or English course. Students may also choose to waive the placement tests and enroll in the first course in either se-ries, which are ENGL 10A and MATH 10.

Declaring Minors

To be eligible to declare minors, students must have already completed the required coursework, or be able to complete it intheir final terms without requiring waivers, substitutions, or directed study courses, unless they are approved in advance by thedepartment chair, program director, or dean.

Students may declare minors when they have completed the required coursework, or after the “Last Day to Drop Course with-out Tuition Charge” (per the Academic Calendar) for their final terms.

Students may declare up to two minors in a given degree program. Students seeking to declare more than two minors will be re-quired to appeal to the dean for approval. Students’ diplomas will list the minors that they had successfully completed at thetime their degrees were conferred. Students may not declare additional minors after their degrees have been conferred.

The following minors are available for this major:

• Accounting Minor
• Business Minor
• Data Analytics Minor
• Finance Minor
• Human Resource Management Minor
• Information Technology Minor
• International Business Minor
• Literature Minor
• Management Minor
• Marketing Minor
• Operations and Supply Chain Management Minor
• Organizational Leadership and Human Skills Development Minor
• Psychology Minor
• Public Administration Minor

Law Minor

A wide range of careers demand an understanding of law and legal principles, from corporate compliance and human relationspositions to positions in government and social service agencies. The Minor in Law will provide students with an introduction tolaw that will give them an edge in their chosen professional field.

Students who complete the BA in Law, including the general education curriculum, will be able to:

• Apply legal analysis to interpret and explain phenomena.
• Demonstrate abilities to interpret and evaluate legal sources and fact-patterns to which those legal sources will be applied.
• Identify policy justifications for legal rules and principles.
• Apply existing legal responses to new problems and develop new legal theories and responses for new problems.
• Analyzes and interprets quantitative data and applies results in legal analysis, strategy, tactics, and practice.
• Analyze and interpret the economic policy justifications for existing legal rules and regulations and explore those rulesand regulations in analysis of novel fact patterns.
• Apply ethically acceptable standards to evaluate legal decisions and practice.
• Apply ethically sound principles and values to ameliorate and/or mitigate real-world personal and/or professionalchallenges and to build and enhance personal relationships.
• Demonstrate ability to research legal questions by locating, evaluating and applying appropriate sources to a wide rangeof legal questions.
• Construct written communications that clearly articulate legal ideas and arguments appropriate to various audiences.
• Demonstrate ability to conduct oral arguments in defense of client interests and, conversely, to respond critically to anadversary’s position.
• Demonstrate interpersonal communication and case management skills, either through persuasive speech, and/or inproviding clear oral directions, instructions, and/or guidelines, that address a legal issue, case or client problem.
• Examine a previously advocated position, including the ability to amend and change that position in light of previouslyunidentified law, regulations, facts or circumstances, both with respect to individual matters or obligations and withrespect to one’s professional principles and posture in general.
• Apply legal values and principles to career goals.
• Identify and express common legal values that build community at local, national, and global levels.
• Develop innovative approaches and solutions to existing or emerging legal challenges that also draw on disciplinaryperspectives in related fields where appropriate, such as ethics, other humanities and/or social sciences.
• Explain and analyze how legal knowledge and analysis can elaborate and deepen the understanding of social and culturaldiversity, and economic development.
• Describe and apply concepts, principles and overarching themes in law and legal thinking.
• Develop a working knowledge of the major theoretical approaches, findings, historical trends and content domains in one or more specialized fields of legal knowledge.