About the Recurrent Education Program for Legal Professionals

Keio University Law School (KLS), under the three principles of "internationality, interdisciplinarity, and cutting-edge research," offers a number of advanced courses. We are proud that the content of these courses is not only important for the education of our law school students but also beneficial for practicing legal professionals. Therefore, starting in the 2014 academic year, we have decided to create opportunities for practicing legal professionals to enroll in some of our courses and participate in classes alongside our law school students. This educational program is called the Recurrent Education Program for Legal Professionals (CLE: Continuing Legal Education).

In the inaugural 2014 academic year, we plan to accept legal professionals into a total of 69 courses: 33 in the spring semester (April–September) and 36 in the fall semester (September–March). For a list of course names, instructors, and other details, please refer to this link.

Legal professionals who participate in the classes can earn credits for the course by demonstrating their performance according to the instructor's directions. Furthermore, they can receive a certificate for the credits earned.

Please note that even individuals who are not practicing legal professionals, such as those working in corporations or public institutions in roles related to the course subject matter, may be admitted to classes in the same manner as legal professionals, at the discretion of the course instructor. Applicants who believe they fall into this category should provide a detailed explanation of the professional necessity of taking the course, in addition to their reasons for applying, in the "Statement of Purpose" described in section "2."

A small number of legal professionals will be admitted to each of these classes.

Participants can take as little as one course or combine multiple courses freely, according to their interests and schedule.

For admission of legal professionals to classes, the course instructor will decide on acceptance based on the documents submitted at the time of application (the "Statement of Purpose"). Some courses may require legal professionals to have certain abilities or experience in advance, and for such courses, this will also be judged based on these documents (for the presence and content of requirements for each course, please refer to the list in "1."). If applying for multiple courses, please write a separate "Statement of Purpose" for each course on a separate sheet of paper. Please note that there is no specific format for the "Statement of Purpose."

Legal professionals taking law school courses will be registered as a "Non-Degree Student (For Credit)." To take law school courses as a Non-Degree Student (For Credit), the fees shown in the table to the right are required.

In addition to this, an application screening fee of 18,000 JPY is required at the time of application. This application fee covers the screening for one academic year. Therefore, the amount does not change even if you apply for multiple courses in the same semester, and if a person who paid this screening fee when applying for the spring semester also applies for the fall semester, there is no need to pay the screening fee again.

 A 2-credit course generally consists of a total of 15 classes, held once a week. Classes are generally held on a fixed day and period, but some may be changed due to holidays or other reasons. For the specific class schedule for each day of the week, please refer to this link. Also, for the timetable of days and periods for each course, please refer to the list in "1."  

The class times from the 1st to the 6th period are as shown in the table to the right.

All classes are held on the Keio University Mita Campus (2-15-45 Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo).

Credits for a course can be earned by attending every class and achieving results such as writing reports as instructed by the instructor. Even for courses where law school students are required to take a final examination and achieve a certain grade to earn credits, the course instructor may direct students to write a report instead of taking the exam.

Regardless of whether a final examination is taken, the performance of legal professionals who have taken the course will be evaluated as "Pass" or "Fail." To earn credits, a "Pass" evaluation is required.

Please note that law school classes presuppose that students will do a certain amount of preparation and review, and this remains the same when legal professionals take the courses.

If you wish to take a law school course through the KLS-CLE program, the following procedures are required: ① Application by the applicant, ② Decision on acceptance by the course instructor, ③ Sending of the admission notice and procedural documents, and ④ Registration by the student (see the diagram below).

① First, please download the application guidelines and necessary documents from the KLS website (to download, click here).

② Next, fill in the required information on the downloaded documents, enclose the necessary documents and a postal money order (for the 18,000 JPY screening fee) according to the application guidelines, and mail them to KLS by registered express mail within the application period.

③ After internal procedures, if your enrollment is approved, an admission notice and procedural documents will be mailed to you.

④ Within the registration period, please fill in the required information on the procedural documents and return them to KLS, and also transfer the registration fee, etc., using the designated transfer form.

After steps ① through ④, the class start date will arrive.

The application period, announcement of acceptance, registration period, and class start date for the 2014 academic year are as shown in the tables below.

In addition to the program for admitting legal professionals to the courses described above, KLS plans to launch a program starting in the 2015 academic year for several legal fields whereby a "Certificate of Completion" for a legal field is awarded upon ① earning credits for a certain number of courses belonging to that field, and ② writing a research paper on that field and passing the review.

In order to take specific courses and earn credits in the 2014 academic year, and to have those credits count toward a future "Certificate of Completion" program, it is necessary to take the final examination for courses where one is administered and to obtain a certain grade evaluation.

Details of this program will be announced in the future, but if you wish to use the "Certificate of Completion" program in the future, please consult with the course instructor about the method of credit certification.