Online Law School at Texas A&M Law

That's true. There are even examples of UK universities not requiring an undergraduate degree at all.

A well-known example (at least in Europe) is the current German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock. She attended the University of Hamburg but never graduated. Nevertheless, the London School of Economics accepted her as a graduate student, and in 2005 she did graduate with an LLM in Public International Law.

 

As some who is a Taft Law graduate and a lawyer and former MSLS instructor at Kaplan U. - my advice is don't waste your time on these non JD degrees unless it is for a specific purpose like a job promotion or for the military - these Masters in Legal Studies provide little content of value and are lightweight degrees and everyone in the field knows it. A LLM is a complete WOT if you have no JD or are not a foreign lawyer already, as a stand alone it provides no standing and aside from a LLM in tax, nobody cares or worse thinks you are pretentious.

 

Well. Pretentious or suffer from poor judgment.

 

This is an interesting post because I was just recently looking at the state bar requirements for one of the states in the midwest, which came about because of my debating NWCU Law (CalBar) versus an ABA school. To my surprise, while the state did not allow people with CalBar JD degrees to practice they did allow people with ABA accredited LLM and BA law degrees to practice. I was a bit surprised and it made me realize I could do the NWCU Law program and simply take a few more classes to get another bachelors concentrating in law just in case I ever needed to practice in that state. Or, at least that was my understanding of what I read.

 

WOW!
“To my surprise, while the state did not allow people with CalBar JD degrees to practice [most states are like that regarding California?] they did allow people with ABA accredited LLM and BA law degrees to practice [totally surprised ].”
This site is the place to learn stuff! Thanks.

 

By all means, learn away....

2022 Guide (To place order)

https://www.americanbar.org/products/inv/book/419092063/

Or just to take a look:

2021 Guide (Pdf):

https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/misc/legal_education/2021-comp-guide.pdf

 

Fascinating! Skimmed the entire pdf. Thanks!

 

Just looked at the PDF and realized CA does not accept the UBE. I think that ruins my idea of doing the CalBar school and still being able to practice in the midwest state later... unless I either want to take two state bar exams (miserable) or be limited to practicing federal law... which I could still consider. Also looks like doing the CalBar school drastically limits the ability to practice on various US island territories, most of which also do not accept the UBE or non-ABA degrees. I think I need to add something to my spreadsheet to figure out what's the cheapest ABA school in a UBE jurisdiction that is decently warm. I may need to pick some easier life goals while I am at it. This is starting to remind me of shopping where my preference by touch and visual appeal is far above my budget...

 

California has reciprocity with no other state. There are several reasons for that. One of the announced reasons is that other states won't extend reciprocity to California lawyers who got their degrees from CalBar accredited non ABA schools.

I'm sure restraint of trade has nothing to do with it. Perish the thought!

 

Many states will allow graduates from non ABA to take their bar exams once those applicants are admitted in California and have three to five years' experience. No short cuts there.