Juris Doctor - Part-Time Evening Program

Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University has offered a part-time evening JD program for working professionals and adults with other commitments and priorities for over a century. In fact, Duquesne Kline School of Law is the only institution in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area of its kind.

Professionals from diverse backgrounds and experiences come to Duquesne Kline to pursue a Juris Doctor degree part-time while working full- or part-time. Our evening students earn their part-time J.D. after only four years of study.

Conveniently located within blocks of downtown Pittsburgh, Duquesne Law offers evening courses Monday through Friday, beginning at 6 p.m. Professionals in the part-time program include those working in energy, engineering, finance, taxation, information technology, and numerous other fields. The list of part-time alumni is impressive and includes business owners, law firm partners, judges, corporate counsel, solo practitioners, and many others.

How to Apply

Admission criteria and performance standards are the same in all day and evening law programs. Applications are accepted Sept. 1 - April 1 for priority consideration for all J.D. programs, including part-time. Applications will be accepted from May 1 through July 31 on a space-available basis. 

Program Information

Duquesne University Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University is the only Pittsburgh law school offering an evening law program. Professionals from diverse backgrounds and experiences come here to pursue a Juris Doctor degree part-time while working full- or part-time. Our evening students earn their part-time J.D. after only four years of study.

Program Type

Major

Degree

Doctorate

School

Thomas R. Kline School of Law

Duration

4-year

Required Credit Hours

87

Flexible Hybrid Programming

In Fall 2024, we began offering a hybrid part-time Evening program for law students.  Our aim is to add flexibility for our part-time evening students during their legal education and to further promote access to legal education. Please note this is not a fully online program. 

  • In this first year, Civil Procedure, Torts, and Legal Writing, are each taught once a week Tuesday through Thursday evenings respectively. These courses will be taught in a hybrid modality.
    • For these three courses, the first two weeks of classes will be designated as in-person only.
    • Generally, during the remaining 11 weeks of the semester, faculty will then conduct classes in a synchronous modality with students in the classroom and potentially some students on Zoom.  
    • Please note, faculty will have the discretion to move a particular class session to fully on Zoom, or to require in-person attendance, for pedagogical purposes.
    • Students will not be permitted to Zoom every week but will have the option to attend class remotely on Zoom for 5-6 class sessions throughout the 13-week semester. That is approximately half of the remaining class sessions, following the first two weeks of in-person classes.   
    • If a class session is designated as in-person only and a student cannot make class, the student will have to take an absence from class but may be able to review a video of the class, if one is available.
  • Contracts, taught on Monday evenings, has been taught fully online for several years and is expected to continue in a fully online synchronous format.
  • All required courses for the evening program will be taught in the hybrid or fully online format as the program is phased in. Property, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure are required to be taken in the second year and thus will be added to the hybrid modality in 2025-2026. Evening electives will be taught in this modality unless excepted for pedagogical reasons by the Academic Dean.  
  • All evening division students will be expected to be available on campus for in-person exams.
  • Qwickly attendance (or a similar tool) will be used to allow faculty to distinguish between in-person and remote students.
  • Faculty may require reasonable notification from a student who wants to Zoom into class, for example, notification at least 24 hours in advance. Where notice is required, faculty will include a course policy for certain emergency situations where Zoom attendance may be necessary for a student.
Law students studying

Current semester class schedules

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Part-Time Evening Scholarships

All accepted students are automatically considered for merit-based scholarships. Incoming student scholarships are renewed annually, provided the student remains in Academic Good Standing. Duquesne University Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University does not award conditional scholarships - that is, financial aid dependent upon a student maintaining a minimum grade point average or class standing, other than that what is ordinarily required to remain in Academic Good Standing.

Merit scholarships specifically for part-time students include the following, a number of which are funded from the proceeds of endowed funds.

  • Catherine Celeste Dillon Memorial Scholarship
  • Randy K. Hareza Endowed Scholarship
  • John J. Hickton Endowed Scholarship
  • Law Alumni Association Endowed Scholarship
  • Edward J. Krug Endowed Scholarship
  • Law Faculty Scholarship for Excellence
  • Law School Scholarship for Excellence
  • H. Murray Lubic, L'26 Endowed Scholarship
  • Morris L. and Helen E. Machen Endowed Scholarship

No separate scholarship applications are required. Read more about scholarships.

Tuition and Financial Aid

Competitive tuition rates and generous financial aid make Duquesne Law affordable. In fact, National Jurist magazine calls Duquesne a "Best Value" law school.

Students work directly with Duquesne University's Office of Financial Aid to apply for federally funded or institutional aid such as Stafford Loans, GradPLUS Loans, and private educational loans. Interested students should submit a FAFSA online at fafsa.ed.gov before May 31. Applicants to Duquesne Law DO NOT have to complete the Duquesne Financial Aid Application. Learn more about applying for aid as a graduate student.

Curriculum

First Year Part-Time Evening Required Courses

Course Credits
Civil Procedure and Drafting I (fall) 3
Civil Procedure II (spring) 2
Contracts I and II (fall and spring) 6
Legal Research & Writing I and II (fall and spring) 5
Legal Skills (fall- optional) 1
Advanced Legal Skills (spring- required for bottom 25% following fall semester) 1
Torts I and II (fall and spring) 5

Second Year Part-Time Evening Required Courses

Course Credits
Advanced Legal Reasoning (fall- required for bottom 25% following first year) 2
Constitutional Law I and II (fall and spring) 5
Criminal Law (fall) 3
Criminal Procedure: The Police Function (fall or spring) 2 or 3
Property I and II (fall and spring) 6
Business Associations (may be taken in the second or third year (fall or spring) 3

Third Year Part-Time Evening Required Courses

Course Credits
Business Associations (may be taken in the second or third year- fall or spring) 3
Evidence (fall or spring) 3
Professional Responsibility (may be taken in the third or fourth year- fall or spring) 3

*Strongly Recommended courses for Third Year Part-Time Evening students: Conflict of Laws- 2 credits, Estates and Trusts- 3 credits, Family Law- 3 credits, Secured Transactions- 1 or 3 credits

Fourth Year Part-Time Evening Required Courses

Course Credits
Core/Applied Competencies I and II (fall and spring) 6
Professional Responsibility (may be taken in the third or fourth year- fall or spring) 3
Sales (fall or spring) 2

*Strongly Recommended courses for Fourth Year Part-Time Evening students: Conflict of Laws- 2 credits, Estates and Trusts- 3 credits, Family Law- 3 credits, Secured Transactions- 1 or 3 credits

Course descriptions may be found on the Law School Registrar's Curriculum page.

Courses shown are required. Students are advised that the graduation requirement for all divisions is 87 credits total.

All matriculating students are required to satisfy an Upper-Level Writing requirement and 6 credits of Experiential Learning.

Because Duquesne periodically reviews and revises its curriculum, course offerings and credit hours are subject to change at any time.