Law school is notoriously challenging and stressful. Rather than breeze through the program like Elle Woods, the charming sorority beauty of Legally Blonde who sent her application to Harvard Law in the form of a poolside-filmed video, most students find that their own experience more closely resembles that of the hapless James Hart, rebellious law student in the film The Paper Chase. When Hart failed to answer a question in one of his law classes, the brilliant but stern Professor Kingsfield called him up to the podium and said, “Mister Hart, here is a dime. Take it, call your mother, and tell her there is serious doubt about you ever becoming a lawyer.”
John Houseman won an Oscar for that terrifying performance, which many lawyers argue is an accurate portrayal of the demands of and tension present in traditional law courses. To many, the option of earning their Juris Doctor degree online seems a less stress-inducing alternative. But online law schools have a major barrier that many students are not aware of when they enroll in them: No online law schools are accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA), which means that their graduates currently have very little chance of actually becoming state-licensed lawyers.
What Does the American Bar Association Have to Do with Law Schools?
The ABA governs legal practice in the United States and sets the standards for becoming a lawyer. Part of that is making sure that law schools actually teach what students need to learn to practice law. The ABA puts law schools through an accreditation process, in which their services are measured and analyzed, and the ABA decides if they can approve of the school’s services as maintaining standards in the legal profession. In general, only graduates from ABA accredited schools can then go on after graduation to take the different state bar exams. Only students who pass the state bar exam can be admitted to the state bar and legally practice law in that state.
This means that the ABA has a lot of control over law schools, and has taken a firm stand on online law programs. In the new 2012 ABA-LSAC Official Guide to Accredited Law Schools, which contains invaluable information on what lawyers do, how to become a lawyer, and the different kinds of law that can be practiced, distance education is addressed in the following way:
Educating a student for a Juris Doctor degree is a professional education of a most distinct variety. During a law school education, a student is expected to participate in a learning community to develop skills and knowledge that will advance the legal system, society, and the student’s career. This law school experience involves interaction with faculty and fellow students outside the classroom as well as in class. Students also learn from each other by inquiry and challenge, review, and study groups. ABA-approved law schools may not offer a JD degree program that is online or done through correspondence study. ABA-approved law schools may grant credit hours for distance education courses, but no more than 4-credit hours in any term, and no more than 12-credit hours toward the JD degree. Students should be aware that studying law by correspondence or other distance education programs would limit the ability to sit for the bar in many states.
In other words, the ABA will not accredit a fully-online law school; anyone who exclusively studies via online courses will not be eligible to take the bar exam and become a lawyer. Ironically, this means that many brilliant legal minds of the past, such as Abraham Lincoln and other famous politicians and lawyers who studied on their own and then apprenticed with practicing attorneys, would not be allowed to become lawyers today, because they did not attend an ABA accredited law school.
Why Are No Online Law Schools Accredited by the ABA?
Many argue that law schools are behind the curve in terms of online education, but the ABA’s argument against online law school focuses on the belief that legal practice is part of a democratic collaborative community that creates law and legal standards together. Further, the notorious pressure-cooker atmosphere of law school relies on interpersonal relationships—sometimes intimidating ones—to simulate the actual practice of law. It is believed that students in online law schools, because they are not face-to-face learning experiences, do not learn how to cannot prepare them for the often life-or-death, intimidating arena of the courtroom or bargaining table
There is at least one dean at an online university who agrees with this concern. Mat Staver, dean and professor of law at Liberty University, the largest nonprofit online college in the U.S., with enrollment of over 60,000 online students, is pleased that despite its high online enrollment, Liberty University School of Law is a campus-based, face-to-face program. In an interview last year, he said that in online programs, “You would lose the interactivity that you would have in the classroom that is really helpful in preparing people not only to know the material, but to be able to articulate the material. I think it would undermine a significant aspect of legal education.”
What Are Student Options for Online Law School?
Things are different in California, where there are 18 ABA accredited law schools and 14 that are not accredited by the ABA. The State Bar of California is the only state bar that allows students who attend an online or unaccredited law school to take the bar exam. Before they can do this, however, they must earn a passing score on the California state First-Year Law Students’ Examination at the end of their first year of law school. Then, if they pass the state bar exam, they can practice law in California, but many states will not honor licensing reciprocity for students who graduated from unaccredited schools. After several years of successful verified practice in California, lawyers may then be eligible for admission to the bar in other states.
All of this may be confusing to prospective law students when trying to decide which school to attend. No state bar will advise students on which law school to attend, and in fact the ABA is staunchly opposed to law school rankings of the sort that appear in publications such as the U.S. News and World Report. The ABA states that, “Qualities that make one kind of school good for one student may not be as important to another. The American Bar Association and its Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar have issued disclaimers of any law school rating system. Prospective law students should consider a variety of factors in making their choice among schools.”
Given all this, those interested in online law schools would be advised to consider the complications such schools may present for current licensing and career prospects, and decide if they are willing to take an alternative path to becoming a lawyer. But online law schools can also be a useful extra resource or support for students in traditional programs. Students can use online law schools for the up to 12 online credits allowed by the ABA and then transfer them to face-to-face law programs, as long as students check first to see if the credits will be accepted.
Finally, it is entirely possible that the ABA will continue to evaluate its policy on online law schools. A mere two years ago, the ABA did not allow any online credits. In the fast-moving world of online education, anything is possible, so it may just be a matter of time before fully online law schools are ABA accredited.
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