Concord opens Concord Law Center and offers two LLMs

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Jonathan Liu, Jul 31, 2001.

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  1. Jonathan Liu

    Jonathan Liu Member

  2. David Yamada

    David Yamada New Member

    Actually, TWO new LL.M. programs -- Tax Law and Health Law. Very intriguing.

    At the risk of repeating myself . . . though I have doubts about the educational soundness of DL J.D. programs (not to mention doubts about pedagogy at the residential J.D. level!), I think that DL is a very promising delivery vehicle for graduate law degrees.

    I don't know why ABA schools are jumping onto that idea before it becomes a bandwagon. When the faculty at my school was debating the merits of creating an LL.M. program in high-tech law, I twice floated the idea of a DL approach and got absolutely nowhere with it. Instead, we're working on a residential program.
     
  3. David Yamada

    David Yamada New Member

    I meant "I don't know why ABA schools AREN'T . . ."
     
  4. joybaum

    joybaum New Member

    I also wonder why more ABA schools aren't offering LLM programs online. ABET engineering schools are online all over the place.
    Maybe it's because law schools in general are sometimes looked down upon by the rest of the academy? After all, the ABA itself had to promulgate a rule that requires law professors with JD degrees to be treated on a more or less equal footing with PhD professors in other subjects when it comes to tenure and promotion. So maybe law schools don't want to offer "correspondence" courses?
    Just a thought.
    Joybaum
     
  5. David Yamada

    David Yamada New Member

    It may be a combination of reasons . . .

    . . . Many residential LLM programs simply add enrollments to currently existing JD courses. Offering a DL LLM means that you have to create additional courses, and the start-up time and expense and logistical arrangements may be considerable.

    . . . Yes, there is an enduring negative reaction to the correspondence law schools of the past, such as Blackstone and LaSalle, and those roots run deep.

    . . . Law professors, like lawyers, are conservative by nature, and many have gotten very comfortable teaching the way they've always taught (and were taught). DL may be too much of a brave new world for some of them. For many law profs who are used to teaching in only one mode (1 teacher "relating" to 80-90 students at a time), any variation is threatening.

    . . . I don't *think* it has a lot to do with how the rest of the academy looks at legal academe. Especially as more legal scholars adopt interdisciplinary perspectives, you see more interaction between law & other disciplines. (There is sometimes a lot of resentment towards law profs, esp. those at prestigious schools, because of their comparatively high salaries.)
     
  6. David Yamada

    David Yamada New Member

    I spent some time this a.m. lurking through Concord's description of its health law LLM. If they do it right, they could be on to something here. At least on paper, the faculty seems to have good credentials and experience. And the program itself sounds very interesting.

    Quality control in admissions and in evaluating students' work seem to be key here. They can't afford to have a bunch of marginal attorneys touting themselves as health law experts by virtue of their LLMs.
     
  7. joybaum

    joybaum New Member

    They can't? I though that's what LLM degrees were FOR!
    Joybaum
     

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