Drexel’s joint JD-PhD program in law and clinical psychology represents the only fully integrated merger of these two professional degrees currently offered at a single university in the U.S.

Students earn their professional degrees in law and psychology in a total of seven years. The program combines coursework with a year-long internship in a mental health/forensic setting, a master’s thesis, a dissertation, a co-op placement in a legal setting and 50 hours of pro bono service in the law.

The curriculum includes core program requirements in law and psychology as well as interdisciplinary courses such as Law and Mental Health, Social Science Applications to the Law, Seminar in Advanced Problems in Mental Health Law and Research in Law and Psychology.

The program aims to bridge the gap between law, which relies on special rules concerning evidence, proof and precedent in order to settle conflicts that require immediate resolution, and psychology, which views problems through an empirical lens, evaluating questions but rarely ending in a final verdict.

Students gain an appreciation and competency in both traditions, mastering the methods, languages and epistemologies of each.

Graduates will possess a broader understanding of social problems than those trained solely in law or behavioral sciences, enabling them to analyze existing policy and potential changes from a psycholegal perspective.

The program is directed by Professor Donald Bersoff (at right), a nationally renowned expert on legal and ethical issues in mental health, developmental disabilities and education, as well as ethics and the law. Bersoff came to the Earle Mack School of Law after directing a joint law and psychology program through Villanova University School of Law and the Department of Clinical & Health Psychology at MCP Hahnemann University (which has since merged with Drexel University). He previously launched a joint law and psychology program at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland School of Law. Having earned his J.D. from Yale University Law School and his PhD in psychology from New York University, Bersoff has experience as a clinical psychologist and a practicing attorney.