Grade Review Procedure

You have the right to review with your professor your examination, paper, presentations, class participation,  externship or clinic journals, or any other work submitted in partial or complete satisfaction of the requirements for credit in any course offered in the William & Mary Law School.  It is not the obligation of the faculty member to justify or to document in detail the grade given.  However, you are entitled to meet with or, in any other means (eg, phone or email), communicate with your faculty to discuss the following:

  • The particular strengths and weaknesses of your examination, paper, presentations, class participation, externship or clinic journals, or any other work.
  • The general grading scale utilized to evaluating your work.
  • The relative ranking of your work when measured against the quality of all other work in the class.

The review shall be conducted in a timely manner.

In the event you believe a member of the faculty has not complied with your substantive right to review (as described above) in some material respect, a formal notification of dissatisfaction may be filed in writing with the Vice Dean. 

  • Upon receipt of a formal notice of dissatisfaction, the Vice Dean will take immediate steps to ascertain whether
    • there has been a failure by the faculty member to adhere to the substantive standards prescribed above, or 
    • whether the formal notice of dissatisfaction is without reasonable foundation. 
  • In the event that the faculty member is determined to have not complied with the substantive standards prescribed above, the Vice Dean will make all reasonable efforts to secure compliance satisfactory to both the student and the faculty member concerned.

 If a student is dissatisfied with a determination by the Vice Dean that efforts to remedy an asserted noncompliance by a faculty member have not produced satisfactory results, the student may write an appeal to the Academic Advisory Committee of the Law Faculty. 

  • Such appeal must be filed with the Chairman of the Academic Advisory Committee and must include a full statement of the events which, in the student's view, justify the appeal.
  • In considering a properly filed appeal, the Academic Advisory Committee is limited to determining whether the student has been afforded the procedural rights provided in this regulation.
  • The Committee is not authorized to review the justification for the particular grade given a student.  
  • The Committee may not direct any member of the faculty to change a grade.  The Committee's function is to insure that the procedural rights outlined in this regulation are not denied to any student.  
  • The Committee must inform both the faculty member and student concerned whether the standards provided for in this regulation have been observed.  
  • If the Committee concludes that there has been a material noncompliance, the faculty member, subject to a right of protest outlined below, should take whatever action is necessary to effect compliance with this regulation as interpreted by the Academic Advisory Committee.

If either the faculty member or the student concerned is dissatisfied with the action taken by the Academic Advisory Committee, a protest of the Committee's action may be filed in writing with the Dean of the Law School. 

  • Upon receipt of the protest, the Dean is empowered to review the entire case with a view to determining what action is appropriate under the circumstances. 
  • The Dean's decision will be the final adjudication of this dispute between the faculty member and student concerned.