Strategic Framework

Positioning Statement Heading link

The University of Illinois Chicago School of Law (UIC Law) is the only public law school in Chicago. Committed to access and opportunity, UIC Law equips future lawyers with the skills to achieve social justice and the values to change lives.

Strategic Framework: Core Values Heading link

  • Academic Excellence

    We integrate legal practice, theory, and values to empower students to think critically and creatively, understand how law works with other professions, and solve client and societal problems. We foster an environment that promotes excellence by providing opportunities and enabling individual potential.

  • Community Building

    We provide opportunities for students, employees, and alumni to meet, learn, collaborate, and celebrate with each other. We strive to create an environment that promotes fairness so that we share the benefits, responsibilities, and burdens of our community.

  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

    Students, employees, and clients from different identities, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives enrich our community. We are committed to being culturally aware, sensitive, and responsive to the needs of all individuals.

  • Ethics and Professionalism

    Integrity and transparency guide our work. We are committed to developing and supporting students and graduates who adhere to the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, and civility.

  • Engagement with the Legal Academy and Knowledge Production

    We are scholars engaged with the broader legal academy. We create and disseminate knowledge to increase community awareness of the law and advance the development of policy for the public good.

  • Public Engagement

    We contribute to improving the law, access to the legal system, the administration of justice, and the quality of services rendered by the legal profession. Through our teaching, scholarship, and lawyering, we seek to create a world that is more equitable and just.

  • Wellness

    We respond to the needs of the Law School community by facilitating access to resources that contribute to academic success and a lifelong pursuit of holistic wellness. We support members of the law school community in cultivating habits and practices that promote continual growth and balance.

Strategic Priorities Heading link

  • Fully embrace and leverage our new role as Chicago’s public law school.
  • Provide students with an excellent academic program that anticipates developments in legal education and the profession and that is consistent with the Law School’s mission statement.
  • Build on the Law School’s history of providing access and opportunity for individuals to study law to become a potent pipeline to diversify the legal profession.
  • Develop a culture of scholarship that encourages individuals to regularly create and disseminate high-quality scholarship that will impact legal and social policy.
  • Foster a culture of excellence, participation, collaboration, and inclusiveness that nurtures an engaged, inspired, and committed workforce.
  • Ensure infrastructure and resources to advance our other strategic priorities.