Correspondence law school

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A correspondence law school is a school that offers legal education by distance education, including online law schools. The regulation of the legal profession in different countries might constrain the opportunity of students to receive legal education through distance learning.

Contents 1 Distance legal education in the United States 1.1 Background and History 1.2 California State Bar Registration 1.3 Use of Socratic Method 1.4 Accreditation and acceptance of credentials 1.5 Baby Bar Pass Rates 1.6 Consumer (student) protection 1.7 See also 1.8 Further reading 2 Distance legal education in other countries 2.1 United Kingdom 2.2 Germany 2.3 South Africa 3 See also 4 References

[edit] Distance legal education in the United States

[edit] Background and History

Unlike other distance education institutions in the United States, law schools form a distinct subset of graduate institutions because of the unique requirements necessary to become a lawyer. The State Bar of California is currently the only state regulatory authority that allows graduates of correspondence and online law schools to sit for the bar exam, although once a law graduate becomes licensed in California he or she may become eligible to take the bar exam in other states.

Law school study by correspondence has existed since at least 1984, the year in which William Howard Taft University, which claims to be the oldest distance learning law school in the U.S., became "registered" with the State Bar of California.^[1]

In 1996, Abraham Lincoln University began with a hybrid in-class and correspondence approach to law school, designed to offer maximum scheduling flexibility to students, before adding an online component in 2004.^[2]

The first law school to offer a degree program completely online was Concord Law School, a unit of Kaplan, Inc., which started in 1998.^[3] Concord graduated its first class in November 2002.^[4]

Observers have noted the attraction of online law schools to students, such as flexible class schedules, lower tuition, and the lack of geographical limitations.^[5] Others, however, have noted that graduates of online law schools face some disadvantages, including (initial) ineligibility to take the bar exam outside of California, learning from unproven pedagogical methods by departing from the Socratic method, and the lack of personal interaction with other students or legal professionals.^[6]

In an apparent response to these perceived disadvantages for online legal education, in 2007 the California School of Law [Californiaschooloflaw.com] began a distance learning law school pedagogy that uses the traditional question and answer Socratic Method in its class sessions, all of which are online. This is possible at the California School of Law because classes are at a set time, allowing the professors and students to have a live discussion where all participants can hear and speak with each other. The technology at the California School of Law also permits students to form online study groups, to share ideas, research results, test strategies and develop networking relationships, as is done by students at traditional residential law schools.

[edit] California State Bar Registration

Six law schools are registered on the California State Bar website as being “correspondence” schools that, according to the California State Bar, means they “conduct instruction primarily by correspondence.” These six schools are: MD Kirk, Northwestern California, Oak Brook, Southern California University for Prof. Studies, West Coast and Taft Law School.

Five law schools are registered with the California State Bar as “Distance-Learning” law schools which, according to the California State Bar, means they "conduct instruction and provide interactive classes primarily by technological means." These five schools are Abraham Lincoln University School of Law, American Heritage University School of Law, Aristotle University Institute of Law, California School of Law and Concord Law School.

Despite the California State Bar's determinations that their primary method of instruction is by correspondence, all six of the designated "Correspondence" law schools hold themselves out in their advertising and on their websites as being “distance-learning” and/or “online.” Most of the correspondence schools are listed on the Google search engine sites as being “online law schools.” On their websites, several of these schools make unqualified claims to the effect that they provide an “online” education, one going so far as to claim that its teaching is “100% online” and another claiming that is “an entirely online law school.” The simple truth, however, is that Abraham Lincoln University School of Law, American Heritage University School of Law, Aristotle University Institute of Law, California School of Law and Concord Law School are the only schools determined by the the California State Bar to be “online” or “distance-learning,” "providing "interactive classes primarily by technological means" rather than, as for the " Correspondence" schools, providing "instruction primarily by correspondence."

Aside from the correspondence Law schools that have been or are making a claim to the effect that they are online schools, some "residential" schools also are claiming to be "online" or "distance learning" when they are not so registered with the California Bar. These include the following: Esquire College, National Law School, Newport University School of Law, University of Honolulu School of Law, University of LaVerne College of Law, and West Haven University.

[edit] Use of Socratic Method

Without exception, all of the prestigious law schools in the United States teach by the Socratic question and answer method. Under the Socratic Method system of legal instruction, before each class students are assigned case opinions and statutes to read and brief. This pre-class preparation is followed by in-class presentations by the students. As a crucial part of this process, students are questioned by the professors, sometimes rigorously with follow-up questions, regarding the facts, rule of law or the validity of the court’s reasoning as to the assignment made before class.Law schools use the Socratic Method in order to teach students how to analyze and make legal arguments, how to properly read and brief cases and how to prepare for the pressures and rigors of a legal practice.

The Socratic Method is the basic pedagogy for all courses at the California School of Law. Use of the Socratic Method at the California School of Law is possible because at this online school students can speak with and hear the professors and their classmates by logging into a Virtual Classroom from a computer at their home or work, thus enabling the professors and students to orally discuss cases and debate the law, live and in “real-time, as is done at all prestigious residential law schools.

The online technology at Concord Law School, however, does not permit use of the Socratic Method. This is because, at Concord, there is no technological ability for the professors to direcrtly call on students to make case presentations or to ask probing questions designed to sharpen the student’s understanding of the legal issue involved in the matter being discussed. The students at Concord can text message questions to the professor but, again, the professor cannot direct questions or otherwise directly engage the students, thus making use of the Socratic Method impossible.

The teaching format at Abraham Lincoln University School of Law is similar to that at Concord. Each Saturday, lectures are given that the students can attend or listen to online and they can text message inquiries to the professors. Like at Concord, however, there is no technological ability for the professors to directly call on students, thus prohibiting use of the traditional Socratic Method of teaching law.

By definition, the correspondence law schools cannot use the Socratic Method.

[edit] Accreditation and acceptance of credentials

All correspondence/online law schools are unaccredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) or state bar examiners, even if they are registered or licensed to confer academic degrees by relevant state education departments. Because they lack ABA accreditation, J.D. graduates of correspondence/online schools are ineligible to sit for the bar exam immediately after graduation in many states, although once they become licensed in one state they may become eligible in other states. Proponents of such exclusions argue that without ABA accreditation, there is no effective way to check that a law school meets minimum academic standards and that its graduates are prepared to become attorneys.^[7] The ABA itself flatly stated in a 2003 policy document, "Neither private study, correspondence study or law office training, nor age or experience should be substituted for law-school education."^[8]

Dean William Hunt, of the California School of Law, suggests that the California School of Law meets the basic ABA criteria for accreditation because of its use of the Socratic Method pedagogy and because the number of hours in classroom teaching required for ABA accreditation is satisfied. Dean Hunt believes that once the California School of Law establishes a record of graduating high quality students with consistent bar passage rates, the ABA will have no reason to deny accreditation. Dean Hunt also points out that ABA accreditation is not precluded by the immediately above-quoted 2003 ABA statement because California School of Law does not utilize “private study, correspondence study or law office training” and does not substitute age or experience for a law school education taught in the traditional way.

Similarly, Concord Law School Dean Barry Currier maintains optimism, saying that "once people see what we do over time, the degrees will be accepted."^[3] Others have noted that the ABA's position on online and correspondence law schools is motivated more by a desire to exercise monopoly power and to protect traditional law schools' exclusivity.^[9] Law professor Michael Froomkin made a similar point when he observed that, "The losers in the new era of legal education will be second- and third-tier institutions that lack name recognition and its concomitant prestige, and their faculties ... They will either have to become discount law schools, or go online themselves."^[10]

Some graduates of California online schools have commenced legal action in order to sit for the bar exam in their home state. Mel Thompson, a 2005 graduate of the West Coast School of Law, has attempted to sue the ABA and the Connecticut Bar Examining Committee, alleging that Connecticut's refusal to let him sit for the bar exam violated due process, equal protection, and served as an "arbitrary" and unlawful restraint on trade.^[11] Thompson's grievance did not succeed and in 2007 his suit was dismissed.^[12][13] In 2007 Ross Michell, a 2004 graduate of Concord Law School, filed suit against the Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners. Mitchell's suit was more successful than Thompson's; in 2008 the state’s Supreme Judicial Court granted Mitchell permission to take the Massachusetts bar exam.^[14][15] In 2009 Mitchell passed the bar and became the the first online law school graduate sworn into the state bar of Massachusetts.^[16]

[edit] Baby Bar Pass Rates

Even in California, which is the exception among the states in allowing graduates of unaccredited schools to sit for the bar exam, students at correspondence and online law schools must take the First-Year Law Students' Examination,^[17] nicknamed the "Baby Bar." Students who do not pass the Baby Bar will not have their credits past the first year of law school recognized by the California bar examiners.^[18]

According to the data going back to the year 2000 that is set out at the California State Bar website, two of the five law schools listed therein as "distance learning" schools have had virtually no students take the "Baby Bar." The two schools are: American Heritage University School of Law, which has had one student sit for the "Baby Bar and he or she failed and Aristotle University Institute of Law, which never has had any student sit for the exam.

Data for the June,2009 administration of the “baby bar” is available for the California School of Law, a school listed as a "distance Learning" law school by the California State Bar. Dean William Hunt reports that all four students passed who had taken the School's Legal Methods course as well as its recommeded, but not mandated, review course designed to prepare students for the "baby bar," thus indicating a 100% passage rate for the June 2009 students who had fully and properly prepared. Overall, counting a transfer student who had been at the shool for a semester and a half, six students from the California School of Law took the June 2009 "baby bar" and four, or 66.7% passed. Three of these students were taking the exam for the first time and all three, or 100%, passed.

Comparable data for the June 2009 “baby bar” for Concord and Abraham Lincoln, the remaing two of the five designated "online" or "Distance Learning" schools,is not yet publicly available. “Baby bar” passage rate data is, however, available for these two law schools for the immediately-preceding “baby bar” administration, namely the exam given in October, 2008. Seventy-nine students from Abraham Lincoln took the “baby bar” in October, 2008 and eight, or 10.1% were successful. The results at Concord School of Law were that 28 out of 196 Concord students taking the exam passed, for a 14.3% passage rate. The passage rate on the 2008 "baby bar' for the students at correspondence law school was, in the aggregate, 23.4%.

[edit] Consumer (student) protection

A concern in US distance education is the existence of diploma mills and schools which engage in fraudulent practices.^[19] In 1994, the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times published information about a Rev. James Kirk who opened a diploma mill calling it LaSalle University in Slidell, Louisiana, which, while being investigated by Louisiana authorities, "contend[ed] it [was] exempt from licensing because even though it offers degrees in engineering and law, it is a religious institution."^[20] In 2004, Saratoga University School of Law, an online law school, abruptly closed amid student complaints of fraud and false advertising.^[21] Students were left without proper transcripts, and so faced difficulty in transferring to other law schools.^[22] Although Saratoga had been "registered," the school was de-listed by the State Bar of California after its owner, Michael Narkin, failed to appear at a review hearing.^[23] California bar and education officials (at the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education) defended their initial decision in 1996 to allow Saratoga to award law degrees, noting of correspondence schools that "many are providing good education to their students."^[24] In response to the historically low bar passage rate of students graduating from unaccredited law schools, including correspondence/online schools, the California State Legislature passed legislation in 2007 transferring oversight authority of unaccredited law schools from the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, which also oversees non-law education, to the State Bar.^[25]

[edit] See also

• List of law schools in the United States

[edit] Further reading

• Robert J. Salzer, "Comment: Juris Doctor.com: Are Full-Time Internet Law Schools the Beginning of the End For Traditional Legal Education?" 12 CommLaw Conspectus 101 (2004).
• Nick Dranias, "Past the Pall of Orthodoxy: Why the First Amendment Virtually Guarantees Online Law School Graduates Will Breach the ABA Accreditation Barrier," 111 Penn St. L. Rev. 863 (2007).
• Steve Sheppard, "Casebooks, Commentaries, and Curmudgeons: An Introductory History of Law in the Lecture Hall," 82 Iowa L. Rev. 547 (1997) (on the Socratic method).
• Bruce A. Kimball, "The Proliferation of Case Method Teaching in American Law Schools: Mr. Langdell's Emblematic 'Abomination,' 1890-1915," History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 2, p. 192, Jun. 2006 (on the casebook and Socratic methods).
• Daniel C. Powell, "Five Recommendations to Law Schools Offering Legal Instruction over the Internet" 11 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y 285 (2006).
• Robert E. Oliphant, "Will Internet Driven Concord University Law School Revolutionize Traditional Law School Teaching?" 27 Wm. Mitchell L. Rev. 841 (2000).
• Stephen M. Johnson, "www.lawschool.edu: Legal Education in the Digital Age" 2000 Wis. L. Rev. 85 (2000).
• Ed Denson, Law study for Correspondence Students ("reflections on [the] study of law in California by correspondence").

[edit] Distance legal education in other countries

Distance legal education is available in several other countries.

[edit] United Kingdom

Distance legal education is rich in tradition in the United Kingdom and is still accepted by the Law Society of England and Wales as a qualifying law degree and one of the possible ways to become a solicitor or a barrister.^[26] Several institutions offer basic legal education (leading to the LLB degree), the oldest of which is the University of London External System. Numerous universities in the UK offer LLB degrees through distance education today, including the Open University.

In several other countries influenced by the British legal heritage, legal education could be obtained through distance education, including South Africa (through the Unisa) and Australia.

[edit] Germany

Distance legal education in Germany is available through FernUniversität Hagen, a public university similar to the British Open University. The graduates receive LLB or LLM degrees. Specialized LLB degrees in business law are available through five universities of applied sciences, Hamburger Fernhochschule, Fachhochschule Nordhessen, Europäische Fernhochschule Hamburg, Fachhochschule Südwestfalen, and Hochschule Niederrhein.^[27] However, none of these degrees is accepted as a qualifying law degree. Therefore, its graduates cannot sit for the Staatsexamen, the German equivalent of bar exams.^[28]

[edit] South Africa

Distance legal education is an acceptable method to become a lawyer in South Africa, and is available through Unisa.

[edit] See also

• Abraham Lincoln University
• California School of Law
• Concord Law School

[edit] References