The mission of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law is fourfold:

(1) To prepare talented students to meet the challenges of a demanding legal career--whether as advocates, counselors, planners, or policy makers--and to meet the leadership responsibilities lawyers are called upon to perform in their personal and professional lives;

(2) To serve as a center of legal scholarship where members work to enlarge society's understanding of law and its underlying policies, legal institutions, and legal processes;

(3) To provide support and service to the people of Western Pennsylvania and to the legal profession, both through the work of our graduates and through efforts to foster improvements in all aspects of the justice system; and

(4) To provide expertise and analytical skills to national governmental units and organizations engaged in efforts to understand and solve some of society's most pressing problems.

Because the law itself is not static, the School of Law's mission must accommodate developments in the legal profession and legal education. Some of these recent developments include:

Interdisciplinarity. The law school faculty must have the capacity to bring the combined perspectives of law and other traditional disciplines (such as economics, social work, and medicine) to bear in its own work, and should help students develop the ability to apply interdisciplinary knowledge in analyzing legal developments.

Internationalization. To prepare students to practice law in an international setting, the law school must foster international contacts, exchanges, and educational programs. International and comparative perspectives are also important to scholarship.

Continuing education. The law school offers a broad range of continuing legal education (CLE) courses for practicing attorneys to help them keep up with the accelerated pace of change in the law and fulfill CLE requirements set by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Direct community service. The law school helps provide direct legal services to indigent clients in Western Pennsylvania through externships and several clinical courses that allow students to work with actual clients under the supervision of the school's faculty.