Best law school to study criminal law

[thegoodlaw 1539]

Queen's is still pretty good in the crim department. You can see that their course offerings are comprehensive. There are a lot of crim trial/appellate advocacy courses that are taught by leading practitioners from Toronto/Kingston/Ottawa -- good for learning and networking.

Where Queen's really excels I think is with its experiential training programs. Kingston has high poverty and tons of prisons, so the prison law clinic and legal aid clinics are extremely busy. They're running a ground-breaking bail program in partnership with the Elizabeth Fry Society, which has been getting a lot of attention.

And finally, there are many Queen's students and alumni who are interested in/practice crim. You'll have  a good network to connect with.

[providence 8135]

There are successful criminal practitioners from every school. I don't think there's much merit to the idea that there is a benefit of going to one school over another if you are interested in Criminal law. For one thing, some of the best practitioners didn't know they were interested in criminal law before law school, or may not have been able to attend one school over another for personal or financial reasons. For another, while having certain courses/connections MAY give you a tiny leg-up into an articling position, the real skills that are useful in criminal law that you ultimately need to be successful when you start your own firm, as most successful criminal law practitioners will eventually do, aren't taught in any law school. 

Edit: law schools want your money and are great at claiming that they have X program or focus or internship or professor that is better than every other law school, which students at those schools then echo, but I haven't seen much evidence that any of this makes any difference 3 or 4 years out of school. A career in criminal law is a very long game. 

Edited January 5, 2018 by providence

[artsydork 5297]

I mean, I would attend law school in the province that I wanted to work in. Osgoode offers a great criminal law program, especially with the opportunities for practical experience that Ontario students can get, but finding work will be about networking. It won't make too much sense to attend Osgoode if you want to set up shop in Saskatchewan.

I would defer heavily to Hegdis' post above, and any other contributor that recommended keeping costs low and getting practical experience.