UDM Events

At the School of Law

School's New Joint-Degree Program with Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Mexico

The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law (UDM) and the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM or Monterrey), Mexico's leading private law school, have partnered to offer the NAFTA Lawyer Program, a multiple degree program that allows students bilingual in Spanish and English to earn law degrees in the United States and Mexico. Students completing this legal education program are awarded both U.S. and Mexican law degrees: the Juris Doctor (J.D.) from UDM School of Law and the Licenciado en Derecho (L.E.D.) from Monterrey.

While there are many programs that enable students to study in the United States and Mexico, this program is different: it enables students to actually receive the law degrees that will provide the educational qualifications necessary to practice law in both countries. This appears to be the only program of its kind in which students complete both the A.B.A.-approved J.D. and the Mexican L.E.D.

With this new program UDM becomes also the only law school offering the opportunity to "hit the NAFTA trifecta" earning degrees in all three NAFTA countries. A student could take the J.D./LL.B. joint U.S./Canadian degree program in three years, followed by three years in Mexico, and end up with all three NAFTA degrees!

With the program with Monterrey, UDM will offer 14 courses in Mexican law taught in Spanish by professors from ITESM. This means that UDM students in the J.D. program will have the option of completing up to one-third of the credits toward the J.D. by taking courses in Spanish. Any UDM student may take these courses as electives: