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Attorneys going online for law degrees

By: dmc-admin//August 17, 2009//

Attorneys going online for law degrees

By: dmc-admin//August 17, 2009//

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Fifteen years ago, Linda J. Schaefer was ready to become an attorney.

She had received letters of acceptance from Marquette and the University of Wisconsin and planned to commute to law school and spend the weekends at home with her family.

But Schaefer, now in her 50s, never made it to Milwaukee or Madison. Instead, she continued her first career as a teacher.

“I did the math and figured with tuition, living someplace else, giving up my salary and [having] a teenager at home, I just couldn’t do it,” she said.

But Schaefer still had the itch to get her law degree. So in 2002 she enrolled at Concord Law School, an online school based in California.

Four years later Schaefer earned her J.D. and passed the bar in California and Wisconsin. She now maintains a general practice in Door County.

While she admits people were initially skeptical of an attorney who graduated from an online law school, her practice has flourished.

“My license says the same as anyone else’s, and that’s all that matters,” said Schaefer.

Value vs. experience

2007 Concord graduate Joy M. Nonnweiler argues that online law schools provide the same training and education as “brick and mortar” institutions, at a fraction of the cost.

Her annual tuition was approximately $7,000, compared to about $16,000 for UW Law School and more than $30,000 for Marquette.

Nonnweiler started Nonnweiler Legal Services LLC in Waukesha after 30 years in the medical profession and now practices primarily criminal defense, Social Security disability and mental health law.

“Law schools turn out people with no interpersonal ability, but we call them lawyers because they went to an ABA-accredited school,” she said. “I don’t see them doing anything that can’t be done online.”

Schaefer said that while she was enrolled at Concord, her son was a student at the University of Dayton Law School.

“Honestly, I believe we had mostly the same experience,” she said.

But University of Wisconsin Assistant Dean for Curricular Affairs Kevin Kelly suggested that traditional students get more than lectures for their money.

He said that “hands-on” aspects like how to make an evidentiary objection can’t be learned through a computer.

“Is it the same thing, meeting face to face, as it is through e-mail?” asked Kelly. “I think the classroom adds a lot in terms of developing lawyering skills.”

Neither UW or Marquette currently offer online courses for students, although the ABA does allow accredited law schools to offer up to 12 credits for “distance education courses.”

Growing trend

Kelly said that schools like Concord cater to a specific segment of the population, often individuals looking to embark on a second career in the law.

Still, the Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners has seen a rise in the number of applicants from online law schools seeking to sit for the Wisconsin bar exam in recent years.

Bar Exam Applications Manager Diane Knipfer expects that figure to increase as online schooling becomes more accepted as a way to obtain a law degree.

Concord is not ABA accredited. Students must pass a first-year exam to continue their studies, and graduates must first pass the California bar before applying to take the bar in their home state.

Nonnweiler and Schaefer agreed that at this point online law schools are still a “niche”. The average age of a Concord student is 43, according to its Web site.

“Twenty-somethings” looking for a career with a large law firm should probably stick with traditional law schools, said Schaefer.

“In that kind of environment, I think the person would need to graduate from an established name school, at least at this point,” she said.

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