University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law


The University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law is the law school of the University of Missouri–Kansas City. It is located on the university's main campus in Kansas City, Missouri, near the Country Club Plaza.
It was founded in 1895 as the Kansas City School of Law, a private, independent law school located in Downtown Kansas City, and was purchased by the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1938. The law school moved to UMKC's main campus soon after, where it is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools.
WWW law.umkc.edu𝕏 umkclawFB UMKCLawIG umkc_law

History

It is one of four law schools in Missouri. It is one of seven American law schools to have had both a President of the United States and a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States attend. Truman attended but did not graduate from the law school and never practiced law. However, Truman served as the presiding judge at the historic Truman Courthouse in Independence, MO. In February 2017, UMKC received forty linear feet of private papers for Justice Charles Evan Whittaker from the U.S. Supreme Court Archive. The archivist is curating these documents at the Miller Nichols LaBudde Special Collections Library.

Admissions

For the class entering in 2024, the law school accepted 365 out of 590 applicants, with 138 of those accepted enrolling, a 37.81% yield rate. One student was not included in the acceptance statistics. The class consists of 139 students. The median LSAT score was 155 and the median undergraduate GPA was 3.51. Five students were not included in the GPA calculation. The reported 25th/75th percentile LSAT scores and GPAs were 152/158 and 3.18/3.78.

Rankings

The school is ranked No.99 out of 199 ABA accredited law schools by U.S. News & World Report in its 2025 Annual Rankings. In April 2018 a student team from UMKC was recognized as National Champion and also won the Best Draft Award at the Transactional LawMeet, a transactional moot court competition for law school students.

Clinics

Eight clinical programs permit students, acting under faculty supervision, to develop legal skills and learn professional values in actual practice settings:
  • Abandoned Housing Clinic
  • Advocacy Master Class
  • Appellate Practice Clinic
  • Child & Family Services Clinic
  • Death Penalty Clinic
  • Entrepreneurial Legal Services Clinic
  • Guardian Ad Litem Workshop
  • Intellectual Property Clinic
  • Kansas City Tax Clinic
  • UMKC Innocence Project / Wrongful Convictions Clinic

Publications

  • The UMKC Law Review
  • ''Journal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers''

Employment

According to UMKC School of Law's official 2017 ABA-required disclosures, 74.07% of the Class of 2017 obtained full-time, long-term, bar passage required ten months after graduation. The same 2017 ABA-required disclosures reports that 89.62% of the Class of 2017 obtained bar passage required or J.D. advantage positions. UMKC School of Law's under-employment score is 23%, indicating the percentage of the Class of 2016 unemployed, pursuing an additional degree, or working in a non-professional, short-term, or part-time job ten months after graduation.

Costs

Tuition and fees for 2017-2018, full-time, first year law students who are Missouri residents: $19,038/year. Non-resident fees are an additional $16,318, but many students qualify for non-resident fee scholarships that allow them to pay the in-state rate while they establish Missouri residency. The approximate cost of attendance at UMKC School of Law for the nine-month academic year for a typical first-year, Missouri resident, law student living off campus is $34,488.

Notable alumni

Politics

Judiciary

Business and practice

Sports

Notable faculty and former faculty