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Succeeding in today's complex business environment requires an ever-expanding set of professional capabilities, with legal skills becoming increasingly important for people with technical backgrounds. Leaders with scientific, engineering, and medical backgrounds interact with law and legal professionals on a regular basis. They are called upon to negotiate a myriad of legal and regulatory structures to move products through the development life cycle, to address compliance requirements, and to maximize ownership of intellectual property all of these processes bear directly on the success of their enterprises.

The stakes of these dynamic processes are immense science, engineering, and medicine are key drivers of the United States and world economies.

To address the complex intellectual property, legal, and regulatory environment facing technology professionals and entrepreneurs, Northwestern School of Law has established the Master of Science in Law (MSL) degree, designed to provide focused, practical, business-centered legal training to STEM professionals. Skills acquired in this program allow professionals to communicate and interact across disciplines and professions, to recognize obstacles and risks, and to visualize opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship.

The MSL can be completed in nine months of full-time study or up to four years of part-time study.

The MSL curriculum consists of all new courses designed specifically for MSL students. The courses cover a variety of legal, regulatory, and policy topics in three main subject areas: intellectual property and patent design; business law and entrepreneurship; and regulatory analysis and strategy. MSL students design their own course plans to fit their particular interests and professional goals. Many students mix and match classes from the three areas of study, while some focus on one particular area. Under both approaches, the MSL curriculum provides its graduates with a strong, relevant knowledge base and an enhanced professional skill set in law and business.

MSL classes are taught by a combination of residential Northwestern Law School faculty and highly qualified adjunct instructors. The residential faculty are distinguished scholars and researchers, while the adjunct instructors are leaders in their respective fields who bring a wealth of real-world professional experience into the classroom. View MSL Faculty Bios (pdf).

Northwestern University is home to world-class law, business, medicine, and engineering schools, and has a long tradition of interdisciplinary excellence. The School of Law is located on the Chicago Campus in downtown Chicago's beautiful Streeterville neighborhood.

For additional information about Northwestern School of Law's Master of Science in Law program, please email msl@law.northwestern.edu .