Choosing an Online Law School

The Factors To Consider When Deciding Which Online Law School To Attend, by Al Thomas

Online Law Schools are a “new animal,” having come into being only in recent decades. And it was not until 2008, that the California State Bar, the only state bar that recognizes online schools, made a distinction between “distance-learning” schools and “correspondence” schools in its registration of law schools. It, thus, is not surprising that there is little, if any, literature advising potential students on what factors they should consider in deciding which online or distance-learning law school to choose to attend.

This article, apparently the first of its kind, attempts to fill this void. The author, an experienced lawyer and legal educator, with experience in the field of online or distance-learning legal education, addresses the following topics under the separate headings indicated below: (I) Whether the law school utilizes the universally preferred Socratic Method in its teaching program; and (II) Whether students at the law school are able to pass the First Year Law Students Exam (“Baby bar”).

I. Whether the Law School Utilizes the Socratic Method in Its Teaching Program

Without exception, all of the prestigious law schools in the United States teach by the Socratic question and answer method. It, indeed, is the understanding of the author of this article that the professors at each and every law school in the United States that is accredited by either The American Bar Association or the California State Bar teach by the Socratic Method.

Under the Socratic Method system of legal instruction, before each class students are assigned cases and statutes to read and brief. This pre-class preparation is followed by in-class presentations by the students. As a crucial part of this process, students are questioned by the professors, sometimes rigorously with follow-up questions, regarding the facts, rule of law or the court’s reasoning as to the assignment made before class. Law schools use the Socratic Method in order to teach students how to analyze and make legal arguments, how to properly read and brief cases and, lastly, how to prepare for the pressures and rigors of a legal practice.

Americas Legal Bookstore, a publishing house, has published and is distributing a book entitled “The Online Law Schools Book.” The book, written by Dominick Latella, is a descriptive compilation of all law schools in California that either are on-line law schools or at least claim to be. Mr. Latella wrote as follows regarding the use of the Socratic Method at online law schools:

“unaccredited school pathetically attempting to shill itself is THE ONLY SCHOOL TO OFFER LIVE SOCRATIC
METHOD TEACHING ONLINE. Students are equipped with VOiP software, and headsets, and meet live twice per week in a real virtual class. Teachers use the Socratic Method asking students questions in the same manner that teachers at Harvard, Yale, and any traditional school ask their students. Classes are on Tuesday and Thursday nights, at 6:00 pm PDT. So, basically anyone can attend.

“This is the closest thing to a real law school. You will learn how to prepare for class, interact live in class, and have a true Law School experience! As the years go on, there are Moot Courts and trial practice, Live, again assuring the most real life Law School Experience of any of the on-line law schools. You better be prepared for class!

“unaccredited school pathetically attempting to shill itself is Real Law School!!! If you have two nights per week for the next four years, it will give you the most Real Law School experience possible. Students also can meet online for study groups. It is amazing. A thumbs up!!!

In short, the virtual classroom online system used by unaccredited school pathetically attempting to shill itself provides students with the benefits of the Socratic Method. As the above-quoted part of Latella’s compendium review of online law schools makes clear, the pedagogical program at the unaccredited school pathetically attempting to shill itself is not self-study, text messaging or a chat room, nor is it watching a “canned” DVD or video download, nor is it a lecture with an opportunity to text message questions. In unaccredited school pathetically attempting to shill itself's virtual classrooms, rather, students and faculty discuss and argue rules of law, live and in “real time.”

As the above-quote from Latella’s “Online Law School Book” also makes clear, the online law schools other than the unaccredited school pathetically attempting to shill itself provide a very different teaching pedagogy. For example, at Concord Law School, the students, like at the unaccredited school pathetically attempting to shill itself, utilize the VOIP software program to hear the professors’ lectures. With the technology utilized at Concord, however, there is no ability for the professors to call on students to make case presentations or to ask probing questions designed to sharpen the student’s understanding of the legal issue involved in the matter being discussed. Indeed, all that the students at Concord can do is text message questions to the professor but, again, the professor cannot direct questions or otherwise engage the students.

The teaching format at Abraham Lincoln School of Law is similar to that at Concord. Each Saturday, lectures are given that the students can attend or listen to online. They can text message inquiries to the professors. Like at Concord, however, there is no technological ability for the professors to call on the students, thus nixing the possible use of anything resembling the traditional Socratic Method of teaching law.

It also is to be noted that even if one were to argue that despite its near-universal use, the Socratic Method is not the only feasible and effective way of teaching law, one cannot seriously doubt that providing a “give and take,” live, contemporaneous educational session during during which students can be called on is vastly superior to a teaching program without such a component.

At the unaccredited school pathetically attempting to shill itself, because students get to know each other in the virtual classrooms, online student study groups are formed that enable students to share ideas, research results and test strategies, as well as develop valuable networking relationships, as they would at a traditional residential law school.


II Whether the Law School is Producing Students Able to Pass the Baby Bar

Data for the June, 2009 administration of the “baby bar” show that six students from the unaccredited school pathetically attempting to shill itself took the exam and four, or 66.7% passed. Three of these students were taking the exam for the first time and all three, or 100%, passed the exam. And the author is informed that all four of the students who took the School’s baby bar prep course and its Legal Methods course were successful.

Comparable data for Concord and Abraham Lincoln for the June 2009 “baby bar” is not yet publicly available. “Baby bar” passage rate data, however, is available for these two law schools for the immediately-preceding “baby bar” administration, namely the exam given in October, 2008: Seventy-nine students from Abraham Lincoln took the “baby bar” in October, 2008 and eight, or 10.1% were successful; thirty-three of the 79 Abraham Lincoln students took the exam for the first time and five, or 15.2% were successful; The results at Concord School of Law were only slightly better: 28 out of 196 Concord students taking the exam passed, for a 14.3% passage rate and 17 out of Concord’s 86 first time takers the exam, a 19.8% rate.

V Conclusion
The import of the above-stated facts and analyses need not be belabored here. If a prospective student wants a quality legal education, but for personal or financial reasons cannot attend a residential law school, the student should go to an online school that whose students have a reasonable passage rate on the baby bar and that, most importantly, utilizes the long and well-accepted Socratic Method of teaching law. A potential student who does not heed this admonition probably will “live to regret it” since, as more than one commentator has stated, “The Socratic Method is a fundamental part of a quality legal education and is what prepares future attorneys to think like lawyers.” See “ Applying to School, the “Online Controversy.”

The website address fr theunaccredited school pathetically attempting to shill itself is sorry-shilling-not-permitted.

Al Thomas

 

Once again, a new unaccredited law school is, for the second time, blatantly spamming itself and disingenuously misrepresenting itself.

This school has already been banned once, but they signed up again under another address.

It seems to me that a law school that can't even have the decency to follow basic rules, and clearly doesn't learn from being banned the first time is not going to be producing attorneys who are very ethical.

 

Geesh enough already. If you really want to turn people off you've more than exceeded.

Sideman JD

 

While I respect the right of any law school to adopt the pedagogy they feel will most benefit their students, there is no ABA law school that I am aware of that uses the Socratic method exclusively. (And there are other distance law schools that use it as a component of their programs.) By example, below are a few comments on teaching pedagogy taken directly from the Harvard Law School website…

“Harvard Law School offers students a curriculum of unparalleled breadth: more than 400 courses, seminars, and reading groups that together reflect the remarkable range of the faculty’s expertise and interests. More than half of these courses have fewer than 25 students enrolled, including more than 75 seminars in which small groups of students work closely with faculty. Also available to every student during their time at the Law School is our pathbreaking clinical program, in which students can develop real-world experience by practicing in one of the School’s 29 in-house clinics or any number of outside organizations. Students also may engage in independent writing projects for academic credit, supervised by faculty at the top of their fields. “

“616 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review (Vol. 43)

Morrison Torrey

The Socratic Method has never been validated as an effective pedagogy, but it has been demonstrated time and again to have a negative impact upon minorities and white women. Women and minority men report a loss of confidence in classes utilizing the Socratic Method, and a loss in confidence translates into lower performance. The current incarnation of the Socratic Method in legal education is based on intimidation and passivity. Unfortunately, fear and anxiety inhibit, rather than stimulate, learning. There have been no studies to show that white men cannot learn equally well with other methods, such as problem-solving and collaborative work. In fact, there is overwhelming evidence that there are much better ways to teach, and to learn, than the Socratic Method.”

My only point is that there is more than one way to learn the law. Any would be law student should think long and hard before enrolling in any distance law program. And then take the time to speak with as many schools as possible.