J.D./M.P.H.
Juris Doctor/Master of Public Health
The J.D./M.P.H. program is comprised of two individual degrees. A student in this program is expected to complete the required 85 academic credits for the J.D. at Georgetown, as well as the 80 units necessary for the M.P.H. at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in four years. Students may request, by written petition, to apply 10 M.P.H. units (equivalent to 6 J.D. credits) to their J.D. academic credit requirement.
The student will spend his or her first year at the Law Center, taking the standard curriculum of 31 credits for a first-year J.D. student. The student then will spend the ensuing 11 months in residence at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health completing the M.P.H. component of the joint degree program. After completing the M.P.H., the student will return to the Law Center to complete the remaining two years of the J.D. program, including a course in Professional Responsibility and successful completion of the legal writing requirement. The student must maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.50/4.00 in their M.P.H. program and the required minimum cumulative grade point average for the J.D. program (see the Juris Doctor Program chapter of the Bulletin).
Participants in this joint degree program complete the following:
• 31 credits in required first-year law program;
• 11 months (starting in July) in residence at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. During this period, students complete a series of M.P.H. core courses. While at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, they are also required to take: Public Health and the Law, and one course (among several options) devoted to ethics and public health. Students are also directed to suggested elective courses;
• During the final two years at the Law Center students are strongly urged to take the Advanced Health Law seminar, Administrative Law (not required for students who have completed Government Processes in Curriculum B), Constitutional Law II, and at least one additional seminar in health law, biomedical ethics, law and science, or a related subject; and
• The Law Center Residency Requirement (see the Juris Doctor Program chapter of the Bulletin).
With permission, students are eligible to enroll in courses at Georgetown’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics. The M.P.H. degree will not be awarded until requirements for the J.D. degree have been completed.
