Faulkner University's Thomas Goode Jones School of Law is based in Montgomery, Alabama, with a Christian educational mission. Its strengths include advocacy, dispute resolution, elder law, and community service, with residential and Executive JD formats.
This guide walks you through how to get into Faulkner Law.
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1. Faulkner Law Admissions Numbers and Statistics
Faulkner Law Class of 2028:
- LSAT: 75th: 154 | Median: 150 | 25th: 148
- GPA: 75th: 3.66 | Median: 3.33 | 25th: 2.99
Faulkner Law Class of 2027:
- LSAT: 75th: 153 | Median: 150 | 25th: 147
- GPA: 75th: 3.59 | Median: 3.30 | 25th: 2.92
Between fall 2024 and fall 2025, the LSAT median held at 150 and the GPA median rose 0.03. Both LSAT quartile boundaries increased one point. The entering class grew from 112 to 167.
Aim to be at or above at least one median to be competitive. Above both puts you in a stronger position. Below both medians, this is a prayer, not a reach.
For context on how medians affect your strategy, see How to Build a Smart Law School List.
2. Faulkner Law Application Essays
Personal Statement
For more on how to write a personal statement, see my Personal Statement Examples and Personal Statement Guide.
For more on making your whole application work together, see my Cohesive Narrative Guide.
Addenda and Character & Fitness Resources
I'll be publishing a guide to addenda and character and fitness.
3. Faulkner Law Resume Requirements
Keep your resume focused on education, employment, activities, and service. Use clear dates and describe your responsibilities directly.
For more on preparing your resume, see my Resume Examples and Resume Guide.
4. Faulkner Law Letters of Recommendation
Faulkner's fall 2027 recommendation minimum, maximum, and submission specifications remain unconfirmed.
For more on recommendations, see my LOR Guide (Applicants) and LOR Guide (Writers).
5. Faulkner Law Interview Process
Faulkner's standard admissions interview policy for fall 2027 remains unconfirmed. Final admission decisions belong to the Admissions Committee, not an individual faculty member.
6. Faulkner Law Deadlines and Decision Options
Testing Policy
For LSAT applicants, Faulkner considers the highest score while retaining all scores in the file. Its application-process page recommends taking the LSAT by June. That recommendation is not a separately established last accepted test date for fall 2027. The Executive JD explicitly accepts either the LSAT or GRE through the standard JD admissions process.
If you're considering the GRE, read my LSAT vs. GRE guide before deciding.
Application Dates and Fees
Faulkner accepts applications through LSAC and reviews them on a rolling basis. The fall 2027 application deadline and fee remain unconfirmed; the July 15, 2026 deadline belongs to the previous entering cycle.
Program Formats
Full-time and Executive JD options differ substantially. The residential JD normally takes three years. The four-year Executive JD combines online work with Friday-evening and Saturday classes approximately every other weekend. It is not a fully remote degree, and the school warns that this format does not satisfy New York's bar eligibility requirements.
7. Faulkner Law Scholarships and Financial Aid
Merit Scholarships
Admitted full-time students receive automatic consideration based on academic credentials, leadership, and service. Faulkner reports no scholarship condition based on law school academic performance beyond maintaining good academic standing.
Cost of Attendance
For 2026-27, full-time tuition is $39,900. The published living allowance is $29,600, bringing tuition and living expenses to $69,500 before fees. Executive and flexible-schedule tuition is $1,330 per credit. The annual full-time rate and per-credit rate are different pricing structures, not interchangeable attendance budgets.
Mission-Based Scholarships
These awards support graduates of participating Christian colleges. Eligibility depends on the relevant partnership rather than simply attending any religious institution.
Retention Scholarships
Endowed awards for second- and third-year students consider financial need, academic achievement, leadership, and service. This is a source of institutional need-sensitive support, but it is not an incoming-student funding guarantee.
Course Achievement Awards
The Caldwell Wenzel & Asthana Tort Law Scholarship and Southern Estate Lawyers Estate Planning Scholarship each award $500 for the highest grade in the relevant course. Neither requires an application or essay. These are later academic awards, not substitutes for an entering scholarship package.
For more on scholarship strategy, see How to Negotiate Law School Scholarships.
8. Faulkner Law Joint Degree Programs
Faulkner offers a JD/LLM in Advocacy and Dispute Resolution within the law school. Students can complete both degrees in three years. The current academic policy requires at least 102 total credits, with up to 12 credits shared and a grade of 2.00 or higher in shared courses. The admissions overview still describes 100 credits; in the manual, that minimum applies to students who matriculated in the JD program before July 2, 2016.
Current JD students and eligible recent alumni may apply. The maximum completion period is five years for full-time joint candidates and six for part-time candidates. Finishing the JD does not automatically complete the LLM requirements.
Separate 3+3 undergraduate pathways include Auburn University at Montgomery and Troy University. The July 2026 AUM agreement allows eligible students to apply their first law-school year toward their bachelor's degree, completing both degrees in six years. These are undergraduate-to-JD arrangements, not additional graduate degrees available to every JD applicant.
9. Faulkner Law Employment Outcomes (Class of 2025)
Faulkner Class of 2025 employment outcomes (reported to the ABA, measured 10 months after graduation):
- Full-time, long-term bar-passage-required employment (ABA): 65.9%
- BigLaw (firms with 101+ attorneys): 5.7%
- Federal clerkships: 0.0%
- Public service (including government): 23.9%
Alabama is the leading employment market, with Florida and Georgia next. Small firms and government account for much more employment than large firms or federal clerkships. That pattern fits the school's regional, practice-oriented opportunities. Compare the cost of attendance with the kind of work you intend to pursue, especially when evaluating a scholarship against likely regional options.
10. Faulkner Law Areas of Study and Specializations
Advocacy and Dispute Resolution: The joint JD/LLM and Alternative Dispute Resolution Certificate connect negotiation, arbitration, and mediation. Students can combine classroom preparation with supervised mediation and advocacy competitions rather than treating settlement skills as an alternative to serious litigation training.
Trial and Appellate Practice: The Board of Advocates includes trial and moot court teams. Advanced practice courses develop briefing, oral advocacy, witness examination, and courtroom skills. Board membership involves auditions, so participation is a selective opportunity rather than an automatic part of enrollment.
Elder Law and Estate Planning: The Elder Law Clinic and related coursework address planning for incapacity, inheritance, and benefits. Students encounter the practical relationship between legal documents and family needs, including how advance planning can reduce conflict and protect vulnerable clients.
Property and Community Practice: The Generational and Ancestral Property Clinic addresses unclear ownership of inherited land. It connects property doctrine with title research, client counseling, negotiation, and estate planning, making the consequences of fragmented ownership visible in actual Alabama communities.
Professional Responsibility and Legal Foundations: Foundations of Law and Foundations of the Legal Profession place legal study within broader questions about jurisprudence and professional obligations. These courses reflect the school's Christian mission while connecting first-year study to the responsibilities of practicing lawyers.
11. Faulkner Law Clinics and Experiential Learning
Clinical and field-placement opportunities begin in the second and third years, with course-specific prerequisites and supervision:
- Elder Law Clinic: Students prepare wills, powers of attorney, and advance directives, and help clients address benefits and financial matters. The practice generally emphasizes planning rather than litigation.
- Mediation Clinic: After intensive training, students co-mediate civil district-court disputes, facilitate negotiations, and help parties work toward settlement.
- Generational and Ancestral Property Clinic: Students research title, counsel families about ownership, and pursue litigation or mediation where appropriate. Community education is part of the work.
- Field Placement Clinic: Students work with attorneys or judges in government, judicial, military, and public interest settings while examining professional responsibilities in a companion class.
Pro Bono and Experiential Learning
The voluntary Public Interest Fellowship recognizes at least 50 hours of qualifying service; it is not a universal 50-hour graduation requirement. The JD curriculum separately requires practical training, generally including a clinic or field placement and an advanced practice course.
The published placement catalog has included Legal Services Alabama, the Federal Defender Program for the Middle District of Alabama, and the Alabama Board of Nursing. Work ranges from client intake and drafting to investigation and administrative-hearing preparation. Placement availability and prerequisites vary by host.
12. Faulkner Law Notable Faculty and Journals
Faculty
- John Craft: Associate Professor and Director of Clinical and Field Placement Programs. Elder law and client counseling. Recipient of the Alabama State Bar's 2022 Public Interest Attorney Award.
- Kelly McTear: Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Mediation Clinic. Mediation, public interest practice, and inherited-property work. She also directs the school's Public Interest Programs.
- Jeffrey Hammond: Professor of Law. Law and religion, health law, and bioethics. Co-editor of Christianity and the Laws of Conscience: An Introduction, published by Cambridge University Press.
- Andy Olree: Professor of Law. Legal toleration and the relationship between law and religious belief. Author of The Choice Principle: The Biblical Case for Legal Toleration.
Journals
- Faulkner Law Review: The student-run journal publishes scholarship by academics, judges, and practitioners and hosts an annual symposium. Selection begins after the first year through the journal's eligibility and application process.
13. Faulkner Law Culture and Student Life
Faulkner's Christian mission and emphasis on service shape its identity. Student organizations include the Christian Legal Society, Ernestine S. Sapp Chapter of the Black Law Students Association, Women's Legal Society, and Jones Public Interest Law Foundation. JPILF supports service opportunities and competitive public interest summer stipends.
The fall 2026 entering class registered 193 students from 18 states and two countries. Montgomery connects students to a state-capital legal community, while the Executive JD brings a different attendance pattern. The first-year mentoring program pairs students with practicing attorneys through the Montgomery County Bar Association.
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Related Reading
→ How to Build a Smart Law School List
→ Should You Apply Early Decision to Law School?
→ How to Negotiate Law School Scholarships
→ 6 Proven Steps to Get Off a Law School Waitlist
→ How to Get Into Law School Below Both Medians
→ What Holistic Law School Admissions Really Means
→ Blog Directory
Note: While I try to keep this guide up to date, always verify deadlines, requirements, and policies at the Faulkner Law website before applying.
Think you spotted an outdated requirement or something that doesn't look right? Email moshe@sharperstatements.com with the school and a link to the current information.
