Meeting W/ An NWCU Law Alumni Attorney

In my continuing debate between attending an ABA law school, inevitably leading to debt, versus a CalBar law school I have lined up a meeting with an NWCU law graduate who is a practicing attorney outside CA. I plan to ask numerous questions including how difficult it was to get hired after graduating, and if she had any challenges getting accepted to the bar outside of CA. If anyone else on here has questions that either they want answered regarding NWCU, CalBar vs ABA, or that they think I should ask - let me know ASAP. The meeting is next week.

If I do go with the NWCU law degree though then I also need to work out the issue of either getting enough experience with federal law to be able to practice in a certain state where the CalBar JD would not qualify me for the state bar, or complete a second bachelors degree focusing in law from an approved ABA school. Anyone know what the cheapest bachelor of law degrees from an ABA approved school are that are online?

The dirt cheap tuition at NWCU is pretty hard to beat but I also feel like this is a big financial decision overall because of the state bar requirements.

 

Can non-California residents living outside of California be admitted to Cal Bar? Online ABA JD, most states do not accept online education. The best route would be a Cal Bar accredited law school; at least you do not walk out with huge debt.

 

NWCU is Cal bar accredited. CA bar does admit non California resident. I am aware of a NWCU graduate who is practicing immigration law in Columbus OH area.

For graduates of NWCU, probably either going solo or joining a small practice. For example, Elizabeth Chapman, who passed Feb 2022 bar exam, joined a small law firm in special education law. (you can find her on linkedin)

As a recent NWCU graduate, I am still waiting for July bar exam result. In my case, I have no plan to actually practice law anytime soon as I am in an AACSB accredited DBA program and more interested in teaching and research.

This program claims it's the only undergraduate law program in the nation (They probably meant the only ABA approved one) and it can be done online. I have not looked into tuition yet.
https://law.arizona.edu/online-undergraduate-law-degree

 

What other schools offer a BA in Law? Not pre-law or legal studies.

 

The program cost 3 courses (9 credits):
Tuition: $5040.00, Fees: $228.00, Tota; $5268.00

It is better with Cal Bar's J.D with Master in Law from top schools; then AU's BA in Laws. At least you know you can practice law somewhere in your life time.

 

Can you elaborate on this? The state I am specifically looking at only requires a BA in law from an ABA school to practice law, so I would just be using this in order to be able to practice state law because the NWCU JD alone would not qualify me since it's not ABA. I know, it's strange. It might not also be worth it and I could just stick to Federal.

 

These two might interest you?

B.A. in Law Online
“For those students who wish to become attorneys, Regent’s 3+3 Law Program lets your first year as a J.D. student count as the last year of your B.A. in Law program—allowing you to go from high school to the bar exam and the practice of law in just six years!“
https://www.regent.edu/program/ba-in-law/

B.A. in Law & Justice
“The B.A. in Law & Justice program is a full-time/part-time program offered online through Rowan University, that provides students with 51 of the required semester hours.“
https://global.rowan.edu/programs/ba-in-law-and-justice-online.html

 

No worries. Whichever works best for you.

 

Thanks. However, I am not interested in pursuing a law degree. I'm just curious about the evidence the poster had to dispute the University of Arizona's claim.

 

Oops. My error.

 

I just assumed that MaceWindu's post was directed at me so I would have different options.

 

I think I see what you are saying, thanks for pointing that out. The 2021 comprehensive guide to the bars list that the state accepts JD or LLB, so apparently no LLM which is a bummer. I think maybe the thing to do is contact the ABA and see if they have any accredited bachelor of law (LLB) programs still in existence. It does seem silly to me that this is an even an issue. It essentially restricts people with an LLB outside the US from practicing, even if they acquire the ABA accredited LLM... so they would have to go back and do a full JD to practice in that state.

 

I guess it depends on the state. I had a professor at Lamar who earned her LL.M. in Criminal Law at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She was admitted to the NY Bar. Her LL.B. is from India.

 

The LLB in the U.S. is long gone. Most states accept an LLB from foreign countries since the LLB or other bachelor of law program is far more common than the JD, globally. However, many states also require foreign attorneys to earn an LLM that covers general American law, especially if their first law degree was not earned under a common law system. The LLM, by itself, is not a qualifying degree for admission to the bar.

Generally, in order to practice as a federal employee, you need to have been admitted to practice in at least one state, DC, or a territory. If you want to practice in front of the federal courts as a non-employee, you usually need to be admitted to your state's supreme court or the highest court of your territory, but this varies by type of court.

The general U.S. courts, which is where most of the work is, require admittance to practice in front of the state's supreme court. The U.S. tax court either requires that you be admitted to your state bar or pass the U.S. tax court exam as a non-attorney. You can represent someone in front of the IRS as an enrolled agent or CPA, but if the case goes to court in front of the Justice Department, you need to be an attorney. If I remember correctly, the Social Security Administration and VA allow for non-attorney representatives for administrative cases. Those with certain STEM degrees can become patent agents after passing the USPTO exam.

 

I'd advise anyone to just skip to the supplemental remarks at the bottom.

 

I knew about the international LLB with an ABA LLM to practice in many states. Unfortunately, the state that I'm looking at does not seem to allow even that. So if the ABA doesn't have any more LLB programs than either I need to do the ABA JD, or else commit to the idea of only being able to practice federal law locally if I get stuck in that state. Or, argue with the state bar to update their rules so they are not so archaic.