Highly qualified students interested in combining the study of law with professional qualifications in business are invited to undertake concurrent degree study under the auspices of UC Irvine’s Program in Law and Graduate Studies (PLGS). Students approved for this concurrent degree program pursue a coordinated curriculum leading to a J.D. from the School of Law in conjunction with an MBA from The Paul Merage School of Business. The objective of the program is to promote interdisciplinary study of law while also enabling students to obtain both a J.D. and a business degree in less time than would be required to acquire both degrees separately. The normative time for completion of the J.D./MBA program is four years.

UC Irvine’s PLGS program is well suited to students interested in professional or academic careers focused on the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of law and legal institutions, policy analysis, and/or applied research in law-related fields (for example, taxation, corporate reporting and governance, regulation and compliance, discrimination, securities, property, real estate, and intellectual property).

Applicants must submit separate applications for admission to the School of Law and to the Merage School. Once admitted for study into both components of the program, concurrent degree students will work with the PLGS director and the director of the Full-Time MBA program to develop a program of study that will permit efficient pursuit of both degrees. Concurrent degree students’ law enrollments will include a required 1-unit “Graduate Legal Studies” colloquium and a 3-unit “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Law” course. Concurrent degree students will be eligible to apply for financial support through the Merage School while pursuing their MBA and through the School of Law while pursuing law studies.

Program Structure. Students in the program complete a four-year combined curriculum leading to a J.D. from the UCI School of Law and an MBA from the The Paul Merage School of Business.

Program Overview. The School of Law requires students to complete 86 law semester units of study for the J.D., 68 of which must be classroom units of law instruction. The remaining 18 law units can be completed outside the School of Law, at the student’s discretion, and with approval of the School’s Dean of Students. Ten of these 18 law units of non-law instruction can be obtained in courses undertaken in the concurrent degree department. The remaining eight law units are typically spent in non-classroom clinical practice.

The Full-Time MBA program operates on a quarter system and J.D./MBA students are required to complete a minimum of 76 MBA units. The curriculum consists of courses divided into two groups designed to achieve specific educational objectives. The courses are divided as follows: 10 required Common Core Courses (40 MBA units) and 36 MBA units of elective courses which students select to emphasize career goals and educational interests. A maximum number of 120 hours of classroom instruction, or 16 MBA units (normally four 4-unit quarter courses), may be utilized toward the MBA, total, from sources outside of UCI’s Merage School. This includes any “non-Merage course approvals” taken in other UCI units, intercampus exchange courses, etc.

The MBA component of the J.D./MBA requires that the 16 MBA units of electives permitted from outside the Merage School may be (but are not restricted to be) taken from among appropriate School of Law electives but may not be counted simultaneously toward satisfying concurrent degree requirements in the School of Law.

Detailed information about J.D./MBA curriculum paths is available online at the Dual Degree Program website.