School of Law

PROGRAMS IN ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS & COMPLIANCE

The University of St. Thomas is at the forefront of education in ethics and compliance. Our LL.M. program is one of just two LL.M. programs in the U.S. that is accredited by AACSB International, and the only one earning this accreditation in the compliance and ethics discipline. In total, we offer five degree options in this discipline:

Never has it been more important for ethics and compliance leaders to be equipped with the education necessary to influence and shape businesses well into the future.

“What we are seeing right now is a serious expansion of compliance-related legislation and regulation around the world. Mexico has a new anti-bribery system, Brazil is a hot spot, the UK Serious Fraud Office is becoming more and more active. And, at the same time, the DOJ and the SEC are cooperating with their foreign counterparts on multi-jurisdictional investigations and prosecutions. Any sizable US company has exposure to the global marketplace, and so has to understand how to navigate these waters. Ethics and compliance professionals are not only necessary in this environment, but can be a business asset as customers and partners want to know they are dealing with companies that take their reputation seriously.”
— E. Alan Arnold, vice president, deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer, Delta Air Lines

THE ST. THOMAS APPROACH

Since 1885, St. Thomas has been committed to educating morally responsible leaders. The School of Law—including the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions—and the Opus College of Business—including the Center for Ethical Business Cultures and the Veritas Institute—are known nationwide for their research and programming on ethics and professionalism. 

The goal of the Organizational Ethics and Compliance Program is to build on this tradition by providing the university’s hallmark “whole student” approach to better position ethics and compliance professionals to shape corporate practices and priorities well into the future. 

CURRICULUM

The Organizational Ethics and Compliance Program curriculum was designed with the practical, real-life needs of the ethics and compliance professional in mind. Required courses provide practical detail relating to the nuts and bolts of creating and maintaining an ethics and compliance program, as well as ways to create and enhance sound ethical cultures and how to remediate weak ones.

FACULTY

Our faculty includes professionals currently working in the ethics and compliance field, as well as professors from the School of Law and Opus College of Business. Their institutional and academic knowledge provides a solid foundation for any student – whether you are new to the field or a mid-level career-changer.

Check out the June 2016 issue of Compliance Week, where Professor Christopher Michaelson was named a 2016 Top Mind in the industry.

EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

The Compliance Externship Program provides students with the opportunity to work side-by-side with corporate ethics and compliance professionals to increase working knowledge of the field. Our students have been placed with Delta, Ecolab, Medtronic, Piper Jaffray, TCF, Donaldson, Toro, Thomson Reuters and the city of St. Paul, to name just a few. The commitment of the professional community to enriching the education of our students is solid proof of the difference that such a program can make to the corporate community at large.