About Us

Mission and Goals

Barry University School of Law seeks to offer a quality legal education in a caring environment that will enable its graduates to apply the skills and knowledge they have acquired to their own personal development and to the good of society through the competent and ethical practice of law or through pursuits other than traditional legal practice. The School of Law seeks to provide a learning environment which challenges students to accept intellectual, personal, ethical, spiritual, and social responsibilities. The School commits itself to assuring a religious dimension in an atmosphere of religious freedom and to providing community service.

The School of Law strives to:

• teach students the skills required of a practicing attorney;
• develop awareness among students of the philosophical, social, economic, political, and moral forces shaping the development of law and legal institutions and encourage students to question the fundamental issues raised;
• prepare students for their role in future development of the law;
• provide enrolled students with meaningful opportunities, including internship and externship programs, to apply and refine legal knowledge and skills learned in the classroom;
• foster in students the highest sense of professionalism and understanding of the ethical and moral issues faced by members of the law school community and the larger legal community;
• attract and maintain a diverse student body, faculty, and staff;
• guarantee the academic freedom of both faculty and students to acquire and transmit knowledge;
• provide resources to support faculty members in their teaching, scholarship, and service to the community;
• help students identify and enhance their personal, religious, academic, and career goals and help students develop the means of achieving their goals; and
• provide for an ongoing self-assessment to determine if the institution is accomplishing its mission and meeting its stated goals.

About Barry University

PURPOSE: The primary purpose of Barry University, as stated in the Charter, is to offer its students a quality education. Furthermore, Barry University commits itself to assuring a religious dimension and to providing community service and presence within a more caring environment.

VISION: Barry University seeks to instill in its students St. Dominic’s vision of a world that celebrates God’s dwelling within us and among us, where life is reverenced and nurtured, where hatred and injustice are eradicated and where the intellectual life is promoted and supported.

In so doing, Barry University is committed to forming students who

• embrace the intellectual life through study, research and reflection as a means to contribute to the advancement of knowledge and to the refinement of the human spirit;
• understand the value of seeking a personal response to the presence of God in their lives;
• reflect on the fundamental questions of human experience and study the responses to these questions proposed by the liberal arts and sciences;
• pursue continued spiritual, intellectual, physical, and professional growth and development;
• demonstrate concern for all individuals in an atmosphere where Gospel values prevail, where people care for and about one another, where diversity is embraced, where individuals are nourished; and
• assume responsibility in religious, social, economic, environmental, and political affairs as a means of effecting needed change in the Dominican tradition of activist justice.

Grounded in study and reflection and guided by prayer, Barry graduates will make responsible decisions for the common good to help shape global communities where peace and justice prevail.

Nature

Barry University is an independent, coeducational Catholic international institution of higher education that fosters academic distinction in the liberal arts and professional studies, in both undergraduate and graduate education, within the Judeo-Christian heritage and the tradition of St. Dominic. Founded in 1940, the University is sponsored by the Sisters of St. Dominic of Adrian, Michigan, and is governed by an independent, self-perpetuating Board of Trustees.

Environment

Barry University, through its 10 academic schools, is a comprehensive university with its main campus located in Miami Shores, Florida with other sites throughout Florida. The University attracts a diverse student body, including traditional and non-traditional students from a variety of geographic, ethnic, religious and socio-economic backgrounds who are committed to taking full advantage of the opportunities provided for learning and personal growth. The University seeks to recruit and retain a diverse faculty who enrich it with their own traditions and heritage, who are dedicated to teaching and advising, to searching for and disseminating truth through scholarship, research, and creative activities and to serving both the University and the larger community in a multicultural environment. The University commits itself to excellence in teaching at all levels, and values its undergraduate, graduate and professional programs supporting their search for knowledge through research and study. The University seeks to maintain a diverse and student-centered staff whose activities enhance the quality of University life. Through its students, faculty and staff Barry University provides a learning environment that challenges all to accept intellectual, spiritual, ethical, physical, and social responsibilities.