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The comparable baby bar pass rates for residential or "fixed facility" schools on the June 2009 baby bar was as follows: ABA accredited law schools 37.5%; California State Bar (not ABA) accredited law schools 18,2%; Unaccredited "fixed facility" residential law schools 15.7%.<ref>http://admissions.calbar.ca.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=7NQI3sxeC9A%3d&tabid=2269</ref>
The comparable baby bar pass rates for residential or "fixed facility" schools on the June 2009 baby bar was as follows: ABA accredited law schools 37.5%; California State Bar (not ABA) accredited law schools 18,2%; Unaccredited "fixed facility" residential law schools 15.7%.<ref>http://admissions.calbar.ca.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=7NQI3sxeC9A%3d&tabid=2269</ref>

Most observors attribute the superior success rate of the students from the California School of Law on the California State Bar's baby bar exam to the fact that this online law school is the only distance learning law school that utilizes the traditional live,"give and take" Socratic Method debate pedagogy.<ref>http://www.onlinelawschoolreviewer.com/</ref>


===Consumer (student) protection===
===Consumer (student) protection===

Revision as of 21:07, 18 July 2010

Main article: Law school

A correspondence law school is a school that offers legal education by distance education, either by correspondence or online by use of the internet, or a combination thereof.

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.[1] 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.[2]

South Africa

Distance legal education is an acceptable method to become a lawyer in South Africa, and is available through the University of South Africa (UNISA).

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.[3] 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 UNISA) and Australia.

United States

Main article: Law school in the United States

Introduction and background

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 authority that "registers" and regulates distance learning law schools.

Distance learning legal education is made up of "correspondence" and "online law schools." The California State Bar website states that "correspondence law schools" are schools that "conduct instruction primarily by correspondence" and that "distance learning schools" or "online law schools" are schools that "conduct instruction and provide interactive classes primarily by technological means." The seven "correspondence" law schools and five "online" law schools so registered with the California Bar are listed below in the "California State Bar Registration" section.

Graduates of correspondence and online law schools that are registered with the State Bar of California can sit for the California bar exam. The other states have varying rules for graduates of correspondence and online law schools registered with the California State Bar. See § below, "Accreditation and Acceptance of Credentials."

History

Law school study by correspondence has existed in the United States since 1890 when Sprague Correspondence School of Law (which eventually merged with Blackstone Institute, and later was known as Blackstone School of Law) was established by William C. Sprague in Detroit, Michigan.[4] Among the school’s early graduates was Antoinette D. Leach[5] who in 1893 became the first woman admitted by the Indiana Supreme Court to practice law in Indiana.[6] Later on, in Chicago in 1908, La Salle Extension University[7] was founded by Jesse Grant Chapline. Those schools and others (including American Correspondence School of Law of Chicago;[8] Columbian Correspondence College of Law in Washington D.C.; New York Correspondence School of Law in New York; and others) were innovative for the time in providing many poor, working-class, women, and ethnic minorities educational opportunities.[9] For example, several of the La Salle Extension University[10] graduates went on to make contributions in law and politics. Alumni included figures in state and local political administrations, including governors Harold J. Arthur and Eurith D. Rivers, Senator Craig L. Thomas, U.S. Representatives John S. Gibson and William T. Granahan, and African-American leaders, including Arthur Fletcher, Jessie M. Rattley, and Gertrude Rush.

Northwestern California University School of Law is the oldest existing correspondence law school in the United States. It was founded in 1982 and began presenting its correspondence program entirely online in 2002. It is the first online law school to offer Internet based and faculty led videoconferencing sessions for students.[11]

In 1996, Abraham Lincoln University began a hybrid in-class and correspondence approach to law school, designed to offer scheduling flexibility to students, before adding an online component in 2004.[12]

The first law school to offer a degree program completely online was Concord Law School, a unit of Kaplan, Inc., which started in 1998 and is the largest of the five online schools.[13] Concord graduated its first class in November 2002.[14]

The first online school to utilize the Socratic Method pedagogy in the traditional "live" direct question and answer format was the California School of Law, which began operation in 2007.

California State Bar registration

Seven law schools are registered with the California State Bar as "correspondence" schools, which means they "conduct instruction primarily by correspondence." These seven schools are:[15]

Five law schools are registered with the California State Bar as "Distance-Learning" law schools which means they "conduct instruction and provide interactive classes primarily by technological means." These five schools are:[16]

Use of Socratic Method

Traditional law schools in the United States teach by the question and answer Socratic or casebook method.[17] Correspondence law schools are now able to teach by this method through use of online Internet technology in live sessions. Under the Socratic Method students are assigned case opinions and statutes to read and brief before each class session. This pre-class preparation is followed by in-class (and on-line) presentations by the students. 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.[18]

The California School of Law is the only distance learning law school with the synchronous technology that makes it possible to carry out the Socratic Method pedagogy in the traditional way, i.e. by live and "real time" direct oral questioning and “give and take” debate. [19]The other online law schools use various asynchronous technologies, e.g., recorded video lectures and text messaging. [20]

Accreditation and acceptance of credentials

Main article: Admission to the bar in the United States

Observers have noted the attraction of online law schools to students, such as flexible class schedules, lower tuition, and the lack of geographical limitations.[21] Others, however, have noted that graduates of online law schools face some disadvantages, including (initial) ineligibility to take the bar exam outside of California in most states and, at most (but not all) distance learning schools, learning from unproven pedagogical methods other than the Socratic Method.[21]

No correspondence and online law schools are accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) or state bar examiners, even if they are "registered" with the California State Bar or licensed to confer academic degrees by relevant state education departments. Because they lack ABA accreditation, J.D. graduates of correspondence and online schools are ineligible to sit for the bar exam in most 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.[22] The ABA 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."[23]

Graduates of correspondence and online law schools that are registered with the State Bar of California can sit for the California bar exam. The other states have varying rules for graduates of correspondence and online law schools registered with the California State Bar: (a) a few states allow such graduates to immediately sit for the bar exams after graduation; (b) some states allow such graduates to sit for the bar exam immediately after passing the California Bar Exam; (c) several states allow graduates of correspondence and online law schools to sit for the bar exams after passing the California Bar Exam and then gaining experience as an attorney: and (d) some states do not allow such graduates to ever sit for their bar exams.[24]

Concord Law School Dean Barry Currier maintains optimism regarding the acceptance of online law school degrees, saying that "once people see what we do over time, the degrees will be accepted."[13] 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.[25] 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."[26]

William Hunt, Dean of the California School of Law, has expressed the view that because the online law schools that utilize the traditional "live" direct oral questioning version of the Socratic Method will have bar results akin to the results at residential "fixed facility" schools, and because online schools using the traditional version of the Socratic Method will have graduates that succeed in the legal field, such online law schools ultimately will be accredited by both the State Bar of California and the American Bar Association.

Graduates of California online schools have commenced legal actions in order to sit for the bar exam in their home states. Mel Thompson, a 2005 graduate of the West Coast School of Law, 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.[27] Thompson's grievance did not succeed and in 2007 his suit was dismissed.[28][29] In 2007 Ross Mitchell, 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.[30][31] In 2009 Mitchell passed the bar and became the first online law school graduate sworn into the state bar of Massachusetts.[32]

Baby Bar pass rates

Students at California-registered correspondence and online law schools must take the First-Year Law Students' Examination,[33] nicknamed the "Baby Bar". Students who do not pass the Baby Bar will not have their credits earned after the first year of law school recognized by the California bar examiners.[21]

Past and recent Baby Bar pass rates, including those for correspondence and online law schools, are provided by the California State Bar. The pass rates for students from correspondence and online law schools on the June 2009 Baby Bar were as follows:[34]

  • Online Law Schools: Abraham Lincoln 16.8%; California Midland School of Law (formerly Aristotle) 0%; California School of Law 60%; Concord Law School 25.1%. (The average for all online schools was 25.1%.)
  • Correspondence Law Schools: MD Kirk 0%; Northwestern California 28.1%; Oakbrook 0%; Southern California 7.7%; Taft 24%; University of Honolulu 0%. (The correspondence school average was 22.5%.)

The comparable baby bar pass rates for residential or "fixed facility" schools on the June 2009 baby bar was as follows: ABA accredited law schools 37.5%; California State Bar (not ABA) accredited law schools 18,2%; Unaccredited "fixed facility" residential law schools 15.7%.[35]

Most observors attribute the superior success rate of the students from the California School of Law on the California State Bar's baby bar exam to the fact that this online law school is the only distance learning law school that utilizes the traditional live,"give and take" Socratic Method debate pedagogy.[36]

Consumer (student) protection

A concern in US distance education is the existence of diploma mills and schools which engage in fraudulent practices.[37] 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."[38] 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.[39]

See also

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")

See also

References

  1. ^ See German Higher Education Compass (official database of German higher education)
  2. ^ See Staatsexamen#Jura (German Wikipedia)
  3. ^ The Law Society - Qualifying law degrees
  4. ^ The History of Legal Education in the United States, Steve Sheppard (April 2007)
  5. ^ Antoinette D. Leach, early Sprague Law Correspondence Law School graduate andItalic text first woman attorney in Indiana.
  6. ^ The Opinion of the Supreme Court in the Matter of the Petition of Mrs. Antoinette D. Leach for Admission to Practice Law in the State of Indiana.
  7. ^ Law Instruction in the La Salle Extension University
  8. ^ American Correspondence School of Law in print media
  9. ^ Griffith Ogden Ellis, "The Value of Correspondence Instruction in the Law", American Law School Review, Nov. 1906
  10. ^ [1]"La Salle" in print media
  11. ^ Guide to California Colleges and Universities (California Postsecondary Education Commission)
  12. ^ Jessica intz,tp://www.startupjournal.com/columnists/enterprise/20040819-bounds.html New Online Law School Raises the Bar on Profits], Wall Street Journal, Aug. 19, 2004.
  13. ^ a b Lois Romano, "Online Degree Programs Take Off," TechNews, The Washington Post, May 16, 2006.
  14. ^ Martha Neil, "Virtual Lawyers: Online Law School Produces Its First Graduating Class," ABA Journal, Dec. 2002 (88 A.B.A.J. 27).
  15. ^ "Registered unaccredited correspondence law schools in California". State Bar of California.
  16. ^ "Registered unaccredited distance learning law schools in California". State Bar of California.
  17. ^ Harvard Magazine
  18. ^ Socratic Method
  19. ^ http://www.onlinelawschoolreviewer.com/
  20. ^ http://www.onlinelawschoolreviewer.com/
  21. ^ a b c Id.
  22. ^ See, e.g., Jay Cook, "Don't lower the bar for law students," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Apr. 13, 2007; Richardson R. Lynn, "Law degree on Net? Stay out of Georgia," Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jan. 30, 2007.
  23. ^ G.M. Filisko, "How Best to Build a Lawyer?: Ideas Float About Changing Law School and Bar Exams, But Few Show That They Have Sticking Power," ABA Journal, May 2006 (92 A.B.A.J. 38).
  24. ^ http://www.californiaschooloflaw.com/index.php?page=state-bar-admissions-alternatives
  25. ^ Adam Liptak, "Virtual Jurisprudence: Forget Socrates," New York Times, Apr. 25, 2004
  26. ^ Wendy R. Leibowitz, "Law Professors Told to Expect Competition From Virtual Learning," The Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 21, 2000.
  27. ^ Douglas S. Malan, Grad: Online J.D. Isn't B.S., Connecticut Law Tribune, Nov. 20, 2006.
  28. ^ Fred P. Parker, "Litigation Update," TItalic texthe Bar Examiner, May 2007.
  29. ^ Martha Neil, "Judge: Internet Law Grad Can’t Take State Bar," ABA Journal, April 11, 2007.
  30. ^ http://www.sociallaw.com/slip.htm?cid=18620&sid=120
  31. ^ Kristina Horton Flaherty, "Court win for online law school grad," California Bar Journal, January 2009.
  32. ^ "Concord Law School Grad to Be Sworn into Massachusetts Bar," Reuters, June 22, 2009.
  33. ^ Description and Grading of the California First-Year Law Students' Examination, State Bar of California.
  34. ^ http://admissions.calbar.ca.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=7NQI3sxeC9A%3d&tabid=2269
  35. ^ http://admissions.calbar.ca.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=7NQI3sxeC9A%3d&tabid=2269
  36. ^ http://www.onlinelawschoolreviewer.com/
  37. ^ Natalie McGill, "Internet lets you earn a post-graduate degree in the privacy of your home," The Hill, Aug. 2, 2006.
  38. ^ Judy Garnatz, "Correspondence law school has its share of complaints," "Times Action," St. Petersburg Times, Feb. 13, 1994.
  39. ^ Michelle L. Tessier, "Review of Selected 2007 California Legislation: Business and Profession: Chapter 534: Raising the Bar for Unaccredited Law Schools in California," 38 McGeorge L. Rev. 31 (2007).
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