Barry Currier: Improve Legal Education Via Technology & Online Learning
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Barry A. Currier
I am a career-long legal educator who knows that the law school experience that I loved and that has served the profession well for decades, while not broken, is cracked in places.
It works for many, particularly those going to law school straight from college.
It does not, however, well serve the needs of everyone who would like a legal education and who would make excellent lawyers, those wanting to enhance existing careers with legal knowledge, or those who hire and engage lawyers (such as law firms, businesses, and the public sector).
How does it fall short?
First, it’s too expensive. The work that many lawyers do and that we need done does not justify the $100,000-plus investment and three years of time and foregone income that is almost unavoidable in law schools today.
Second, it’s not accessible. Many who would like to be lawyers (and who would be excellent members of the profession) have work and/or family responsibilities that make it more difficult than it should be – or impossible – to attend a traditional brick-and-mortar law school, even on a part-time basis.
Third, law school does not engage the minds and generate the commitment of many students so that they acquire in law school the foundational knowledge, skills, and values new lawyers should have. Nor are they inspired with a love of the law and our legal system to help safeguard and advance the rule of law and our justice system – here and around the world.
Hear a Q&A with Barry Currier about how his online law school fits into the legal ed landscape:
Traditional legal education has responses for these concerns, but they fall short. For example, the idea of a two-year J.D. program has resurfaced recently. It does rearrange the law school calendar and might make law school more accessible for some, but it does not reduce the actual time in school that must be spent to earn a J.D., the cost of the degree, or the need to be physically present for the duration of the program. A good idea, but not a solution to problems that are much more pervasive.
Clinics, foreign study programs, and externships all offer possibilities for increasing the engagement of students in their studies, but still the “butts-in-seat, listen to the professor, take an exam at the end of the semester” model predominates. Many students have experienced different and better models in their undergraduate and other graduate work.
A partial answer to these concerns is to make more and better use of technology in legal education. The options range from the simple – make recordings of every class available to students to use for study and review – all the way through to programs that rely on distance learning, either blended programs or fully online programs like we offer at Concord Law School of Kaplan University.
In addition to many other ways in which today’s technology can improve the educational experience for students, our system provides (indeed, requires) students to participate in real-time classes with fellow students, where they can be instructed by a faculty member, be called on, and the like. There is no doubt now that the kinds of student-student and student-faculty interaction that we usually hear from lawyers is a sine qua non of a sound program of legal education can be done in the online environment.
Lawyers and legal educators need to develop an understanding of online learning so that the discussion of how it can contribute to making legal education better, more affordable, and more accessible can proceed. It may not be the way that most of us went to school, but it works; there is plenty of proof on that point. It’s not THE answer. It will not replace traditional legal education. But, it is part of the answer about how to make legal education serve the profession better.
The ABA should move, as expeditiously as it can, to revise its approach to distance learning. Lawyers should welcome those who pursue their legal educations this way and appreciate the experience and richness that they will add to the bar.
Barry A. Currier is president of Kaplan Legal Education and dean of Concord Law School. Before joining Concord in 2004, Currier was Deputy Consultant on Legal Education at the ABA. He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
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Posted by Jim Hanks - 5 months, 22 hours, 14 minutes ago
Barry Currier is a friend with whom I served on the ABA law school accreditation committee when he was Deputy Consultant. He is also a smart, reflective guy who makes several good points. To expand on some of them: 1. Maybe we need to think about a category of professional that is somewhere between a paralegal (itself an innovation that occurred during my career) and a lawyer, someone who could, with appropriate training and less than an 83-credit/$100,000 education, do home closings, simple wills, incorporations, maybe even routine litigation, e.g., landlord-tenant. 2. Maybe we need to think about some kind of state or other certification of specialization, as in the medical profession. Some law schools are already offering certificate prorgrams and many LL.M. programs have been concentrated for years. 3. Legal education needs to be far more than just doctrinal. It has got to incorporate more skills—negotiation, pleading, drafting, advocacy, even judgment. Many law schools are already doing this, although not all of them well. 4. A major problem, however, is that there is more law than ever and now increasing globalization is creating its own demands for familiarity with different legal systems. More skills, more law, globalization—Is 83 credits adequate? I am well aware that it is heresy to suggest expanding law school, especially in the current economic environment, so maybe increasing the number of specialized LL.M. programs or creating new post-J.D. certificates programs focused on specialization and/or skills would create the opportunity for differentiated, marketable credentials. 5. Finally, as an adjunct law professor for more than 15 years, I believe that the careful use of practicing lawyers as adjunct instructors has not been fully explored or developed by most law schools.
Posted by Jessica - 4 months, 4 weeks, 1 day, 1 hour, 53 minutes ago
Mr. Currier, you make an excellent case for online learning institutions.
I would like to know how this proposed “universal bar examination” would impact online law degree programs, such as those available through Concord. Would Concord graduates be able to sit for this bar as well?
Posted by Barry Currier - 4 months, 4 weeks, 19 hours, 10 minutes ago
Jessica,
As you probably know, being admitted to the bar in a particular state requires, among other things, both a qualifying legal education and success on the bar exam.
These are related, but distinct requirements. The uniform bar exam, which my friend Erica Moeser discusses elsewhere in this Legal Rebels material, is a good idea and, in my view, inevitable in some form or fashion before too much more time passes. That exam would not, however, have any direct impact on the legal education requirement of a state’s overall bar admissions requirements.
Some states have pathways to practice that are open to individuals who do not have a J.D. from a law school on the list of schools approved by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, but most states do not. Conversations on this topic usually lead to someone saying that “you can’t test everything” on the bar exam. To the extent that statement reflects the fact that not everything that you believe a student acquires during law school (knowledge, skills, and values) can be or is susceptible to being tested on the bar exam, I agree. However, in my view it is not correct to conclude that those different/additional things that a sound law school program provides cannot be obtained by students in a high quality program that is fully or substantially online, particularly given the power and possibilities of educational technology today.
Thank you for the question.
Barry Currier
Posted by Rick Church - 4 months, 4 weeks, 18 hours, 48 minutes ago
Dean Currier,
As a 3L EJD student at Concord, I appreciate your efforts to make Concord a better and more respectable school in the eyes of legal educators across the country. For me, distance learning law school was my only hope of obtaining a legal education as the closest ABA accredited school is 90 miles away.
Hopefully, at some point in the future, the ABA will allow distance learning methods (more than the current 12 credits)to educate students who want to become practicing attorneys in all 50 states. There is no doubt in my mind Concord will lead the way. Do you expect ABA accreditation for distance learning schools in the next 5-10 years?
Regarding Mr. Hank’s comment about post JD education, do you envision Concord offering the LL.M. again at some point in the future?
Regards,
Rick Church
Posted by Anthony Coleman - 4 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, 14 hours, 58 minutes ago
Hi Uchenna,
I’m in Cali getting ready to take the “Baby Bar” exam Tuesday. I came across this link from my school’s home page.
Anthony
Posted by Scriver% - 4 months, 1 week, 6 days, 4 hours, 42 minutes ago
Thank you Dean Currier,
I am a distance law student who recently took the FYLSE. The rigor and discipline it takes to prepare for the FYLSE should be probative of the value of a distance legal education. The world has changed in the past decades. The realities of a global economy and rapidly changing technology requires our legal educational system to keep pace.
Thanks again!
Posted by Mark Terry - 2 months, 4 weeks, 17 hours, 13 minutes ago
Well stated. Dean Currier has propounded some and excellent and timely ideas.
As someone who just finished the first 3 credit hours towards completing an online paralegal program, I’m sure that Dean Currier’s ideas could be implemented, if the program has proper oversight and is thoroughly reviewed by the ABA.
I discovered, too late, to my chagrin, that the program in which I enrolled is rife with grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors in written assignments and quizzes.
I also signed up for a school in which I can now find no student reviews anywhere on the Web. (I know - buyer beware, and due diligence and all that.)
It appears to me that some of the accrediting organizations do little, or no, review of some of their accredited organization’s course material, and ultimately, the student is left with wondering what, if any, real-world benefit he or she will enjoy after plodding through the error-riddled class material and finally obtaining a “diploma.”
If there existed a distance learning program which was properly vetted, there’s little doubt that it would be a resounding success. To that end, I applaud your efforts.
I suggest this: There ought to be a single organization, such as the ABA, with oversight over distance learning for legal professionals.
Posted by Carla Pastie - 2 months, 2 days, 13 hours, 38 minutes ago
Concord Law School continues to provide me the tools with which I am building a heavenly mansion of knowledge.
Posted by Dee - 1 month, 4 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 22 minutes ago
This could be one of the most important steps anyone can take…but what about the American Bar Ass.?
Posted by D Lee - 1 month, 3 weeks, 7 hours, 49 minutes ago
I have a Doctor of Education in Instructional Technology and Distance of Education and an Online Instructor. I am a
proponent of Distance Education. However, the correlation between lecture and distance education within the legal pedagogy is not an isolate concern. Initially, schools question the validation of distance education. However, the educational system as a whole, whether it is primary, secondary, and/or higher education, realize technology is the motivating factor in which cognitive processes enhances learning outcome and increases retention.
I believe the legal pedagogy should embrace distance education and move into the 21nd century instructional process. It is cost effective and gives students more bang for the buck!
Posted by Katherine Hatton - 5 days, 3 hours, 6 minutes ago
Thank you Mr. Currier for acknowledging and publishing this insert on the importance of online technology and law education. I just obtained a M.S. in Information Technology only because I could obtain a JD online without having to practice in California for 5 years before I would be allowed to sit for the Indiana State Bar. I would like to practice law so much, but I want to practice in the place where I grew up and where I know people. I do not think it is fair that I would be told where I have to live and work in this life simply because the ABA or the ISE are not current in their knowledge and understanding of distance education. Thank you.