Distance Learning Law Schools

It's a little easier said than done but I'm yet to see an attorney that hasn't been able to do it. Apparently it can cost a lot of money though.

 

Question for Dr. Bear (or anyone with insight). How do you think the Sunset process and recommendation that unaccredited schools in CA be mandated to achieve recognized accreditation will impact the unaccredited law schools? I suspect it may at the moment cause people to pause before enrolling. I think at least with the unaccredited law schools (and Psychology schools) you have some objective measure (State testing) regarding whether the school is achieving what it is supposed to achieve.

I am mainly interested in studying for the sake of studying and possibly making a small living on the side. However, I do not want to enroll only to have CA drive the online/correspondence schools out of business. For these schools "accreditation" would be pointless since with the exception of ABA accreditation it would be meaningless to the practice of law since only ABA is considered accredited in the law world (not national or regional accreditation). Getting RA or NA would not as I understand it impact what counts which is passing the CA Bar for a chance at reduced career prospects.

On another note this was a fascinating statistic (not sure of the accuracy):

Inside the Law School Scam: Labor day

What happened to law in the USA? Was it the fact that it is seen as a way to wealth or that parents traditionally wanted their kids to grow up to be "Doctors, Lawyers, or Indian Chiefs" (ie prominent professions). At some point, we began producing what based on that stat is an awful glut of attorneys borrowing an awful lot of money to practice law. We have glossy advertisements in print and on TV promoting law offices with the drama of a bad soap opera and commercials informing us that if we have ever taken a certain medicine or received a certain implant we can sue. Other countries like the UK, Canada, etc do not seem to have stooped to this.

 

My understanding is that the correspondence/DL law schools in California get their degree-granting authority from the California Bar, separately from the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE). If this is correct, then the proposed change in BPPE policy would have zero effect on these law schools.

Furthermore, some correspondence/DL California law schools actually do have regional or national accreditation -- even though they lack ABA accreditation. For example, Concord is both RA and DETC, while California Southern and Taft are DETC. So even if these schools did fall under BPPE jurisdiction, they would not be affected by a requirement to obtain recognized institutional accreditation -- because they already have it.

Even under the worse case scenario, correspondence/DL schools that already have recognized accreditation should be perfectly safe choices. In practice, RA and NA schools like Concord, Taft, and California Southern account for a large percentage of the successful correspondence/DL bar passers -- more than half in the 2013 calendar year. So why pause ?

 

Garp: Schools like NWCU are registered with the California Committee of Bar Examiners. As you stated the only form of accreditation that makes any substantial difference is ABA accreditation. Like CalDog said the BPPE will have "zero effect" on schools such as NWCU. It's really just a choice of whether you want NA or RA accreditation included in your chosen school. If that's not important to you, choose the least expensive credible option, and get ready to study.

 

Thanks CalDog and Sideman for the info re: BPPE versus approval by the Bar. That helps alleviate some concerns.

Sideman, what you have stated seems to be my impression as well. Since the only accreditation that matters is ABA, there does not seem to be a discernable difference between DETC accredited schools like Concord and Taft and the other unaccredited options (they are all listed as unaccredited distance learning or correspondence schools regardless of DETC or no DETC). Taft, Concord and even Cal Southern are far more expensive than NWCU Online Law School - Degree - Northwestern California University or American International School of Law International Law School | CA State Bar registered Online Law Schools | AISOL . I learn toward AISOL because the whole program costs 8900 and includes Baby Bar and Bar prep in the program. In addition, they claim to be geared to the Bar. Their Dean is the founding Dean of Chapman University's School of law. A concern is that they are very new and so their great Baby Bar pass rate is based on a low sample. NWCU has going for it the fact that it has a 30 year track record.

I hope US law gets itself out of the tailspin it is in (too many grads and tacky adverstising) and regains some of the general dignity of law that is still maintained in the UK and Canada. It is a noble profession that has done much good for society (when law is at its best). It is also just fascinating in terms of reasoning (etc) and that is what interests me.

 

I checked the BPPE regulations, and they explicitly exempt law schools from BPPE oversight. This includes ABA law schools, and also non-ABA law schools handled by the California Committee of Bar Examiners:

So any changes in BPPE policies should not affect California correspondence/DL law schools. Possibly a school could be affected if it offered both law and non-law degrees, since the non-law degrees might not qualify under the exemption.

 

Many thanks!

 

California Southern would be an example, because they offer a variety of degrees, not just the JD. Their JD programs should be exempt from BPPE oversight, but their other non-law programs presumably are not.

However, Cal Southern already has DETC accreditation. So even if BPPE did demand institutional accreditation, Cal Southern would still be covered. It's true that the legal community doesn't care about RA or NA; from their perspective, ABA is the only thing that matters. But from BPPE's perspective, RA or NA should satisfy any accreditation requirements that they might impose in the future.

 

The prep for the Baby Bar and the Bar is certainly enticing from AISOL. When I studied with NWCU I prepped for the Baby Bar with Flemings Fundamentals of Law (which went for about $400 then). This was an added expense, of course along with books and outlines (which came to about $500-$700 per year). At the time NWCU was about $2500 per year tuition that they'd lock in for the entire program. Now it's $2850 per year, about a $600 per year difference from AISOL. If AISOL would've been operational at the time I'd have given them serious consideration certainly because of the prep for the Baby Bar. If you go with either one for the first year you'd certainly want to pass the Baby Bar before going forward. The decision then becomes now of who would prepare you best for that.

 

cbkent put it this way on another board,

Funny but he/she has a point!

 

They do have an impact overall when we see how certainly something works for us and most of the times getting into law learning can really be a helpful thing which grows reasonably and is fine enough for us.