Located near the bustling, multi-ethnic port of Miami, the University of Miami School of Law takes cues from its namesake city and focuses its academic resources on international and comparative law, with a faculty chosen with an eye to overseas as well as legal experience. UM Law makes a point of providing classes in Spanish, integrating students into comparative law bilingually and offering courses on inter-American law. The school also sponsors joint JD/LLMs in international law, inter-American law, and ocean and coastal law. Taxation Law is another of the school's strong suits, with a department that ranked sixth--tied with BU and UCLA--in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report assessment.

Academically, the school's structure is standard, though UM Law makes a point of eliminating the mandatory grading curve from the required first-year classes. Rather, it has a kind of grading floor, requiring faculty to give A or B+ grades to at least 20 percent of the class. The school also runs the Academic Achievement Program, where upper-level students conduct study groups for 1Ls to help them adjust to the school.