Breakout Session 2 – Integrating Rigor, Pedagogy, and Career Readiness in Legal Masters Education
March 3 | 3:15 pm - 4:30 pm
Claudia Cantarella, Adjunct Professor and Affiliated Expert, International Development Law Center, UC Law SF
Jason Fiske, Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies and Professional Programs, UCLA School of Law
Marye Phillips, Adjunct Professor of Law and Director, Health Care Compliance Online Certificate Program, University of Pittsburgh School of Law
As legal masters programs expand across the country, institutions face a central design question: how can MLS curricula maintain academic rigor comparable to JD education while also serving the distinct professional roles of non-lawyer students? This panel examines how rigorous doctrinal instruction, intentional curricular design, and career-oriented learning outcomes can be integrated rather than treated as competing priorities. We argue that legal masters education must move beyond both diluted JD models and purely skills-based training. Instead, effective programs deliberately connect doctrinal depth to the realities of legally consequential decision-making in professional settings.
The panel will explore three interlocking dimensions of this approach:
• Integration and Rigor – How legal masters courses can be meaningfully integrated into JD programs while preserving doctrinal depth, analytical standards, and comparable learning outcomes.
• Pedagogy and Curriculum Design – How faculty can structure legal masters curricula around decision-focused, experiential frameworks that train students to interpret law, assess risk, and exercise disciplined judgment in pre-litigation contexts.
• Career Readiness and Advancement – How this integrated model produces graduates who demonstrate legal fluency, institutional competence, and measurable career impact across heavily regulated and legally complex sectors.
Participants will leave with concrete strategies for designing MLS curricula that preserve academic rigor, strengthen institutional coherence, and translate legal education into professional authority and advancement.