Law Deans Oppose Proposal To Accredit

Law deans oppose proposal to accredit online law schools
April 2, 202411:28 AM CDT
https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/law-deans-oppose-proposal-accredit-online-law-schools-2024-04-02/

“April 2 (Reuters) - Deans from 26 law schools have asked the American Bar Association to pull back on a proposal to extend its seal of approval to fully online law schools, saying more employment and bar pass data for graduates of online and hybrid programs is needed before making the change.

In a public comment, on the proposal, deans including those from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law; the University of Houston Law Center; and Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law wrote that the arm of the ABA that oversees law schools hasn’t made clear why it should modify its longstanding policy of accrediting only law schools with a brick-and-mortar location. The public comment period opened Jan. 23 and ended March 25.

The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in November began the process of modifying its accreditation standards to allow for fully online law schools, with proponents saying that change would expand access to a law degree and reduce the cost of becoming a lawyer.

The ABA has accredited a handful of fully online juris doctor programs, but only those offered by accredited law schools that also have brick-and-mortar campuses. The proposed change would allow graduates of fully online law schools that are ABA-accredited to sit for the bar exam in any state. The council could make a decision when it next meets in May.

The ABA received 21 letters during the latest round of public comments, 16 of which were in support of accrediting fully online law schools. Many of the supporters are students, graduates or faculty of Purdue Global Law School, which is the oldest online law school in the U.S. It was founded in 1998 as the Concord Law School before its acquisition by Purdue in 2017.”

 

If you teach law online do you still have to smoke a pipe and wear a herringbone jacket with leather elbow patches?

Glad you're stepping into the 20th century, boys. Of course, we're a quarter of the way through the 21st, but no matter.

 

I'm really curious how much of the push to allow all-online ABA schools comes, in the background, from current ABA B&M schools looking at dropping the costs and constraints of campus instruction and flipping to all-0nline while retaining ABA. I know not to expect

among those schools very soon.

 

Agree.
Also, there’s a two year B&M full time Law School in Ohio. Wondering, since online adds a year, if that school went online would it be 3 years online instead of 4? If so, and “affordable,” that school could become very popular?

 

I think the underlying relationship may be that part-time adds a year (compared to full-time), and most online law programs are part-time, and further that among Calbar schools, registered unaccredited adds a year (compared to accredited), and until recently all Calbar correspondence or distance learning schools were registered unaccredited. And the 2-year ABA programs are technically 3 full-time academic years delivered in 2 calendar years, scheduled year-round without summer breaks.

 

THANKS

 

This particular tabby has already left the sack it seems to me. If you accredit online programs offered by B&M schools how can you justify not accrediting the same online program just because it doesn't have a resident program as well? I realize the idea is to protect cushy law professor jobs but still.

 

And bill your client in 6-minute increments.