Registration Forms

J.D.s: A digital points petition is only required for 11 points, the minimum point load. This may be approved only once during your Law School career.

LL.M.s: More than 15 points or fewer than 11 points require the permission of the Dean or Director of the Office of Graduate Degree Programs.

A student who serves as a teaching fellow under the active supervision of a faculty member may register and earn point credit for such work for the term or terms concerned, and may serve as a teaching fellow for multiple courses. 

J.D.s: The credit earned as a teaching fellow for a single course may not exceed four points; and the total credit earned as a teaching fellow for all courses may not exceed eight points. CR/F only.

LL.M.s: Can earn up to 3 credits. Requires the permission of the Dean, Director, or Associate Director of Office of Graduate Degree Programs. CR/F only.

*For information on receiving compensation instead of credit for Research Assistant/Teaching Fellow positions, please visit the Law Human Resources department’s website for further details and required documents.

Under the faculty member’s supervision, you will serve for one or more terms as a research assistant without pay and in this capacity perform legal research and writing in aid of scholarly investigations. 

J.D.s: 2 points per academic year. Letter Grade or CR/F.  

LL.M.s: 1 point per academic year. Requires the permission of the Dean, Director,or Associate Director of Office of Graduate Degree Programs. CR/F only.

*For information on receiving compensation instead of credit for Research Assistant/Teaching Fellow positions, please visit the Law Human Resources department’s website for further details and required documents.

Register for Major Writing by undertaking a substantial and rigorous piece of legal writing, consisting of at least 2 drafts, the second of which responds to your supervisor’s comments and suggestions on the first draft. CR/F only. 0 academic points.

Register for Minor Writing by writing an ordinary course paper, brief, or other written work under the supervision of a Columbia Law School faculty member. CR/F only. 0 academic points.

*As of 11/21/23: Automatic Minor Writing no longer requires a Digital Registration form submission.

In order to graduate, every LL.M. student must register for L6694 by completing either:

1. The paper(s) must be worth at least one point of Law School academic credit. A one-point paper, whether written as a seminar requirement or as supervised research, generally represents about 70 hours of work, or 5 hours per week, and is usually 3,250 - 4,000 words or 10 to 15 pages (double-spaced, 12 point font), although individual professors may have different requirements. Assignments completed for LL.M. Legal Research and Writing do not satisfy the LL.M. Writing Project requirement.
2. The paper must be graded on the A-B-C-F scale. 

J.D.s: No more than four points of credit in an academic year, nor more than three points per semester, may be given to any student for such supervised research or experiential study, and all point credit given must be approved by the supervising instructor. Letter Grade or CR/F  

J.D.s:  A student may earn credit for supervised research by writing a research paper or its substantial equivalent, or credit for supervised experiential study by undertaking a substantial project that requires the exercise of professional skills, under the supervision of a Columbia Law School faculty member (including visiting and adjunct faculty).

No more than four points of credit in an academic year, nor more than three points per semester, may be given to any student for such supervised research or experiential study, and all point credit given must be approved by the supervising instructor. Letter Grade or CR/F  

LL.M.s: Supervised research entails writing a research paper independently of any course under the supervision of a Columbia Law School faculty member (including clinical, visiting and adjunct faculty) who agrees to supervise the work and grade it. The paper must be worth at least two points of academic credit and 20 pages in length. Students can earn an additional point for each additional 10-15 pages written. Letter Grade Only

You can register for one or two semesters of supervised research with the same professor for the same written work. If you register for two semesters, you will receive the notation of YC (Year Credit) for your fall work until the spring grade is submitted, at which point the same grade will be recorded twice for the fall and spring.

In the case of students undertaking independent research and whose supervising faculty determine that the work is of such magnitude that it requires an additional semester of research and academic credit, students must submit a Year Course (YC) Grade form. This form will need to be approved by the faculty supervisor. A mark of YC will be given at the end of the first term of a course in which the full year’s work must be completed before a final grade is assigned. The grade given at the end of the second term is the grade for the entire course. It will be recorded twice for the fall and spring. This does not preclude faculty awarding a letter grade for work done thus far nor does this preclude awarding the mark of IN if the final work product is not submitted by the fall work submission deadline and no agreement for further work is made.