Online JD - University of Hawaii at Manoa

But they tried, right? That proves.... uh, something, doesn't it? Not sure what. Intent? Motive? Mens rea? Women's rea? Help me out here? I'm lost!

 

I think it has to do with state bar admission. ABA approved many online LLM programs for many years since they don't need to be admission to the bar.

 

Not quite true. ABA approval is limited to a school's J.D. program. They don't accredit any other law degrees. All they do is "acquiesce" (their word) to a law school offering a degree in addition to the J.D. The criterion is only that the school's additional program won't adversely affect the J.D.

 

As to embracing online J.D.s, the ABA had a choice of going along or becoming irrelevant. Their members want to do this for revenue I suspect. Two things worry me though. First, the 1L year is the "formative" year. The student learns to work in a high pressure environment and, perhaps more importantly, how to face intimidating people without backing down. An online experience might not work out the same.

My second concern is that first year performance seems correlated to Bar passage rates. Take a look at the poor performance of correspondence students on the California Bar exam.

If these online programs required a residential first year I'd have no concerns.

It's the future though. The newest generations of lawyers and law teachers are forming their profession in a way that suits their needs. Let's hope it also suits the needs of the public.

 

The problem with lawyers is that they're indispensable in any modern society. They are also often influential people for better or worse.

 

England and California have had purely online laws schools for years.

 

California yes and look at the Bar pass rates. England I'm not sure that's true. Qualifying LL.B. degrees have been available by correspondence for a long time but I don't know whether a D/L law practice course exists or, if it does, how long its been available.

 

Then there's the pupillage or articled clerk stages which are part of "law school" and must be completed in person by the aspiring Barrister or Solicitor.

 

Law school no longer required under the SQE route:

Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) | The Law Society

 

I note the two 180-question ticky-box tests alone cost GBP 4,100+ to take. Now there's a money-maker!

 

The SQE is the highest-priced exam-only I've ever seen. In contrast, if you qualify to take the USMLE (for MDs) it's free in Canada and the US. I didn't see any charge for it, anywhere in the world, that cost over $150. And it's not all multiple guess, either.

 

I have known about this program for a few months. It's been on my list of places I've been considering. The tuition for non-residents ($1,909/cr) though is almost double that of resident tuition ($933/cr). The Western Regional Graduate Program shows they have a tuition discount for my state which would make tuition for me 150% of the resident tuition, or ~$1,400/cr. I believe the catch is that a person can't switch to resident status in the following years if enrolling under the Western Regional Graduate Program. At an average of 15 credits per semester for 3yrs, my guesstimate for overall cost of the program tuition paying the non-resident rate until one could switch to resident is $113,250, or staying on the Western Regional Graduate Program exchange would be about $126,000. From what I've seen, most law school students seem to graduate with somewhere between $130k to $160,000 in debt, but I'm not sure if that's just for the program or if it's for the program plus living expenses. The debt-to-income ratio in recent years at U Hawaii law has been about 1.27, which isn't amazing but by no means horrible. I have reached out and talked to numerous students who attended the law school, some of which just graduated and others were still enrolled. It seems that the school leans heavily towards preferring to admit locals, but I suspect with the online program that might not be as much of an issue. It doesn't seem like the school is doing great on getting scholarships out to students though, and although I would think this ABA program would be great for me in many ways the $100k price tag makes it hard to swallow next to an non-ABA NWCU Law $15,600 price tag.

I've also been considering some other schools in California, Arizona, and Puerto Rico. I was looking at Florida and Texas too but in the last year the politics have gotten so much opposite of what I believe in that I don't know if I could handle being in either state.