Concord Law School

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by jayncali73, Sep 5, 2007.

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  1. jayncali73

    jayncali73 New Member

    For those who might be interested. Concord Law School announced they will be merging with Kaplan University.

    "We have also reported to you on the plan to formally merge Concord Law School into Kaplan University (KU). This will make Concord the first fully online school to be part of a regionally accredited university, since KU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association (HLC), one of the regional accreditation bodies in the United States.

    As we have stated, this additional educational credential (KU's HLC accreditation) does not of its own accord expand Concord graduate's bar-taking opportunities, but it is an important step along the way toward Concord's acceptance in the higher education world and the legal profession.

    One benefit of the merger is that Concord students will be eligible to apply for federal financial aid programs. This does not happen instantaneously upon HLC's approval of the merger. There are processes to complete with the United States Department of Education.

    We expect a decision from the HLC on the merger very soon. In anticipation of a decision in favor of the merger request, KU's very capable financial aid and accreditation team is helping us work through the U.S. Department of Education requirements. As we can make official announcements or say more about this, we will do so".
     
  2. airtorn

    airtorn Moderator

    Does that mean the degree will now be RA instead of NA?
     
  3. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    Well, I guess later Kaplan University id going to join the ABA. If I am not mistaken, ABA states that they don't have any distance learning program for law at the present time; but possible in the future. I guess, in this case Kaplan University is possible to be the first Online school with ABA's accreditation.
     
  4. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    Well, NA or RA is not matter...as long as the degree holder can take the bar examination other than the state of California.
     
  5. jayncali73

    jayncali73 New Member

    They are waiting for the final word. This would make Concord the first online law school with RA accreditation (I believe).
     
  6. jayncali73

    jayncali73 New Member

    They have a long way to go for ABA accreditation. However, I believe that Concord's goal is to produce good lawyers and show the profession that an online legal education is possible in turning out good lawyers. In hopes of one day being ABA accredited; a long and hard road to hoe. :)
     
  7. Vincey37

    Vincey37 New Member

    Interesting that Concord cites financial aid as a benefit of RA, becuase DETC had certified them to seek Title IV earlier this year.
     
  8. Linuxman

    Linuxman New Member

    COncord Law

    If they were to become an ABA school, I would jump on it in a heartbeat. I know some people that are taking courses at Kaplan, and they swear by it. I looked hard at Concord, but I live 2000 miles from California, and would not want to move there to practice law.
     
  9. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Don't hold your breath. The ABA is adamantly against distance learning. After all, that would lead to an increase of lawyers.

    -=Steve=-
     
  10. RobbCD

    RobbCD New Member

    Will this change save Concord's (oft maligned) Executive JD programs? I think that I read that non-bar track "JDs" were being legistlated away. Am I remembering correctly?
     
  11. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    ABA doesn't care whether or not a school is RA. There are a number of well-known "stand-alone" law schools that are not affiliated with universities, and that have not pursued RA. The only accreditation that they have is professional accreditation from ABA.

    In California, the best known example is the University of California's Hastings School of Law. It's one of the largest and most prestigious law schools in the state, and it's fully ABA-accredited, but it's not RA.

    So ABA could have accredited Concord long before now, with or without RA, if it wanted to. But it doesn't want to.
     
  12. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    If you said that Hastings School of Law belong to the University of California's University System. Then, it should be accredited by regional accreditation anyway. Correct me if I am wrong. If Hastings School of Law is not accredited by RA, then University of California at Merced is an unaccredited school.
     
  13. tmartca

    tmartca New Member

    Check the link below and look up UC Hastings School of Law. They have no institutional accreditiation and one professional (ABA) accreditation.

    http://www.ope.ed.gov
     
  14. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    You are wrong. The regional accreditation agency, WASC, accredits the UC campuses individually, not as one system. But WASC does not accredit the UC Hastings campus.

    You can see the WASC list of accredited schools here. The UC campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, LA, Riverside, San Diego, SF, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz are all listed on pp. 23-25. But UC Hastings is not on the WASC list anywhere.

    UC Merced is a new school, and it has not yet received regional accreditation. If you refer to the WASC list, you will see that UC Merced is listed separately, on p. 29, as a "Candidate Institution". The WASC accreditation decision is currently scheduled for February 2009. So yes, UC Merced is currently an unaccredited school.

    But the UC Merced situation has nothing to do with UC Hastings. Hastings was founded in 1878, and has therefore had ample time to get regional accreditation. But they don't need it. They are a standalone law school, and so professional law school accreditation is all that they need.

    There are a number of other standalone law schools, like Albany Law School and Brooklyn Law School in New York, that aren't RA either. UC Hastings is just the best known example.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 6, 2007
  15. David Boyd

    David Boyd New Member

    Unaccredited LLM?

    Interesting discussion on Hastings. If it is true that they do not have WASC accreditation, it would then mean that their LLM degrees are unaccredited since the ABA has made it clear that their scope of approval does not go beyond the JD level.
     
  16. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    ABA does state that:
    So yes, it would appear that a LL.M. degree from UC Hastings would be technically unaccredited. UC Hastings does not hold regional accreditation from WASC, and its professional accreditation from ABA does not cover the LL.M.

    Albany Law School (in New York) also offers the LL.M. degree, and this degree would be similarly unaccredited, since ALS is not regionally acccredited by MSCHE. There are probably other examples as well.

    In practice, I doubt that anyone is going to question the legitimacy of an LL.M. degree, if it was issued by a school that was ABA-accredited for the J.D. degree.

    A somewhat similar situation exists in engineering. State licensing boards prefer or require engineering degrees that are professionally accredited by ABET. But ABET normally only accredits the BS degree; graduate degrees in engineering are rarely ABET-accredited. In practice, state boards generally assume that a graduate degree in engineering is acceptable, if it was issued by a school that was ABET-accredited for the BS degree.
     
  17. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    ABA does state that:
    So yes, it would appear that a LL.M. degree from UC Hastings would be technically unaccredited. UC Hastings does not hold regional accreditation from WASC, and its professional accreditation from ABA does not cover the LL.M.

    Albany Law School (in New York) also offers the LL.M. degree, and this degree would be similarly unaccredited, since ALS is not regionally acccredited by MSCHE. There are probably other examples as well.

    In practice, I doubt that anyone is going to question the legitimacy of an LL.M. degree, as long as it was issued by a school that was ABA-accredited for the J.D. degree.

    A somewhat similar situation exists in engineering. State licensing boards prefer or require engineering degrees that are professionally accredited by ABET. But ABET normally only accredits the BS degree; graduate degrees in engineering are rarely ABET-accredited. In practice, state engineering boards commonly assume that a graduate degree in engineering is acceptable for licensure, if it was issued by a school with an ABET-accredited BS program.
     
  18. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville is another standalone law school that is also only accredited by the ABA, but they don't seem to offer anything other than the JD.

    -=Steve=-
     

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