An Insider's Glimpse into the MJ-LEL Program at Tulane University

My inside view of the Masters of Jurisprudence in Labor and Employment Law comes to you from piles of case law and research articles as I’ve just started to research my Capstone Project, which is the final assignment of the program. The MJ-LEL program is an online program but it’s structured for adult learning. As part of the program, you are mostly working at your own pace but each class is split into Modules for the week so you can stay on track throughout the program. There is also Live Zoom Class held about 5-6 times for each 15 class. Overall, you will be interacting significantly with your instructors

and your fellow cohorts. The program starts out with mandatory classes. These classes include: Introduction to Employment Discrimination where you’ll do a deep dive on Title VII and really get to know that law inside and out. Trust me, you may think you know Title VII but even after 24 years of working in Human Resources, there was so much “law” for me to learn in this class. Along with this class, you will take Legal Analysis I, which introduces you to new concepts like how to find case law, the order in which the law takes precedence, primary and secondary sources and you’ll learn how to do proper legal writing. This class

was excellent and the instructor is one of the best! You follow these two classes up with Legal Analysis II and Labor Law. In these classes, you’ll continue to learn how to step up your legal research and writing and everything you ever wanted to know about Unions and collective bargaining. Your third semester has you heavily entrenched in Employment Law where you’re learning about employment at-will, employee classification, FMLA, FLSA and Torts. Again, you may think you know a lot about these topics but trust me when I tell you learning about them from a “law perspective” is very different than learning about them as an HR practitioner. You’ll also take Intellectual Property Issues in the Employment Context. Truth be told I dreaded this class as I couldn’t imagine how this class would ever relate to me or my personal human resources experience. However, the class was relevant in several different ways that I hadn’t contemplated and it ended up being one of my favorites. You’ll read loads of case law in this class but the reading is interesting and very relevant to everything going on in the world today. Around this time you'll be gearing up the Tulane Immersion Weekend which is mandatory but very beneficial.

For your fourth and fifth semesters, you get to choose an elective to take in addition to the core classes Social Media in Employment and Sex & Gender Issues in employment – one of the most mind expanding classes you will ever take. And finally, you arrive at your Capstone semester. All your hard work culminates into a research paper that has you becoming the visionary law student you had only hoped to become. Overall, the program is absolutely fabulous. It’s work that is rewarding. Your growth as you move through the program will astound you and you’ll feel ready to take on the world!

An Insider's Glimpse into the MJ-LEL Program at Tulane University © 2023 by Lisa Sorce is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0