Law school offers new online Masters degree

Degree of difficulty - - - you must live outside the USA

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/education/law-school-plans-to-offer-web-courses-for-masters.html?_r=1&ref=education

 

Note that this LL.M. (= "Master of Laws") is not a typical "online Masters". This is actually an advanced degree in law; it's higher than the J.D. (= "Doctor of Jurisprudence") typically issued by US law schools.

The J.D. was originally the LL.B. (= "Bachelor of Laws"). So the first degree in law was a bachelor's (LL.B.), and an advanced degree in law was a master's (LL.M). In the US, the LL.B. was ultimately rebranded as the J.D., but the LL.M. degree was unchanged. Other countries still have the LL.B. - LL.M. sequence.

Most US-trained lawyers will stop with the J.D.; in most fields of law, the LL.M. is not needed for professional practice. But it's different for lawyers trained in other countries. In this case, it may be helpful or necessary to have a US law degree in order to qualify for state bar exams. So many law schools offer LL.M. degrees to foreign lawyers to meet that need. It's usually faster, easier, and cheaper for a foreign lawyer to earn a US LL.M. degree than to earn a US J.D. degree.

In most states, law schools have to be approved by the American Bar Association (ABA), which does not allow fully online programs. However, the ABA technically only approves J.D. programs; LL.M. programs are not covered by the ABA rules. This allows fully ABA-approved law schools, like WUSTL, to offer online law degrees -- but only the LL.M., and not the J.D.

WUSTL is not the first ABA-approved law school to offer online LL.M. degrees. For example, NYU offers a highly regarded online LL.M. in tax law. As stated above, most US lawyers will stop with the J.D., but tax law is an exception; the LL.M. is valued in this specific field.

 

Looks like they'll take up to 100 students for the year. That'll be a tidy sum of 4.8 mil for the tuition coffers. Maybe other schools will sit up and take notice.

 

WUSTL partnered with 2tor to launch this program. I recently completed an online MA from USC; this program was delivered in the same way the WUSTL program will be, as the USC program is also the result of a 2tor partnership.

It is almost disingenuous, though, to say these 2tor-partnered programs are online, as "online" programs generally conjure up images of the program being highly-flexible or self-paced, or both, to accommodate the schedule of working adult students. This is not at all the case with 2tor partnered online programs.

The universities that have partnered with 2tor (USC, WUSTL, UNC-Chapel Hill, George Washington), hold scheduled, 1.5 to 3 hour weekly class times for each course. Students generally register for 2-4 courses per term (during my last term at USC I juggled 4 courses), and must attend and participate in their scheduled class time via web conferencing with web cam and voice over IP. One must register for a particular scheduled class day and time just like an on campus student might, and cannot be absent from more than 2 classes per course (such was the case at USC, anyhow). Further, in addition to attending classes, weekly study group sessions are a requirement (at least they are at USC and UNC-Chapel Hill), are attended via web conferencing/web cam/VoIP, and are recorded via the web conferencing app (as proof that they occurred).

I happened to [mostly] love the format of the USC program and became very close friends with many of my classmates because I literally saw them and talked on the phone with them weekly, in addition to emailing and messaging them on Facebook. But we full-time working folks complained often and loudly about our 530am classes or, for those on the east coast or in Asia or what have you, classes that ended at 1am on a Tuesday, let's say. Can't help but wonder how busy lawyers who can't attend a traditional, on-site program will fare with a program whose major convenience is not having to drive anywhere but is in all other ways, in no way dissimilar to an on-site program.

 

Woops, I meant Georgetown U. and not George Washington U.