Congratulations on your admission to the Indiana University Maurer School of Law! It is a thrill and an honor to get to welcome you to the one of the oldest and best law schools in the United States, situated in an outstanding, beautiful public university and in a welcoming and affordable college town. As is true every year, your entering class of LLM, SJD, MCL, and PhD students have demonstrated their excellence as law students, and as leaders in the legal profession and business settings in their home countries. Our graduate students make up a vital part of our global, diverse, and inclusive community and we cannot wait for your arrival. 

While here, you will have the great fortune of living in Bloomington – a diverse and stimulating college town, with world-class music, sports, food, and natural escapes. The Law School makes up part of a world-class Big 10 research campus and boasts unbeatable research facilities, resources, and support. Our breathtaking law library will facilitate your research and provide you a peaceful place to further your studies while overlooking a wooded meadow from which to watch the seasons pass. 

Our graduate programs will offer you the opportunity to learn about the US legal system and be exposed to the best of the US method of legal education. Your classes will push you to deepen your familiarity with US law and will encourage you to engage in comparative legal analysis as you detect the differences between the law in your country and the US. These vital skills, and the critical thinking, argumentation, writing, and professional skills you will learn will prepare you for the global practice of law. While you are here, you will be invited to actively participate in our intellectual community, including attending conferences, workshops, scholarly presentations, and other academic events. These occasions, and your participation in any of the school’s research centers will encourage you to engage in some of the most important issues our society faces today while also tailoring your legal education.      

We are very proud of the legacy of this great law school. The alumni of our graduate legal studies programs serve as leaders in academia, in government, in private practice, in corporations, and in non-governmental organizations and in not-for-profits worldwide. Our 11,000 alumni reside in every US state and throughout the world. Further, IU’s 600,000 alumni make up a dynamic and active alumni network that is organized to welcome you.

While you may be far from home, you hope you will feel supported here. Students in the graduate programs have access to a wide-range of student support services provided by a team of professional administrators and staff. Students in the J.D. program are also a part of this team, as Teaching Assistants (TAs) or as International Peer Group Assistants (IPGAs), who help small groups of students learn their way around the law school. Our faculty are committed to be role models, caring mentors, and superb educators.

We have chosen our class of entering graduate students carefully and we are thrilled you will be a part of it. In coming to IU, you will carry forward our legacy as a law school that values making a difference in the world and prizes the community we build every day in our classrooms, hallways, and offices.

Until we can warmly welcome you in person, we hope you thoroughly enjoy your summer.

Christiana Ochoa
Dean
Professor of Law
Class of 1950 Herman B Wells Endowed Professor
Academic Director, Indiana University Mexico Gateway