Zoom University's On-Line Law Degree

WASHINGTON - Jan. 5, 2024 - PRLog -- The American Bar Association [ABA], which accredits our nation's law schools, and establishes detailed requirements which they must meet, has proposed that U.S. law schools be permitted to offer a fully online course of study leading to a law degree, and thereby provide graduates with a ticket to take the bar exam.

Students often refer to taking courses online as studying at "Zoom U."

More precisely, the Council of the ABA's Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar voted to send out for notice and comment a novel proposal that would allow a fully online law school to apply for, and potentially earn, ABA approval.

Virtually all of the comments which have been received have been positive.

The council has already passed a proposal permitting law schools to offer some of their courses online, something many law schools already do following the widespread temporary shift to Internet instruction during the pandemic.  If adopted, this new proposal would permit a law school to offer its entire course of instruction on line.

This means that law schools which already allow students to obtain a degree online from anywhere in the world - such as
Purdue Global Law School - could become fully accredited so that its students can sit for the bar exam.

Perhaps more importantly, it might permit accredited law schools to dramatically expand their class sizes to include hundreds if not thousands of students, including many who could not afford, and/or take time off from existing jobs or other responsibilities, to attend in person.

This might make it possible for many students of modest means to become lawyers because the costs of providing a legal education entirely over the Internet are obviously much lower than doing so in a brick and mortar law school.

In other words, such a change could help bring more students from minorities now underrepresented in the ranks of lawyers into courtrooms, boardrooms, and law firms than all the DEI programs put together, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who  opened the doors of law schools to deaf students for the first time.

It could also mean that lawyers in foreign countries could obtain degrees, and be admitted to practice in the U.S., to help their foreign clients deal with potential legal problems growing out of doing business here and/or with U.S. companies.

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law Emeritus
George Washington University Law School
"The Man Behind the Ban on Cigarette Commercials"
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor
Fellow, World Technology Network
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
Inventor of the "Banzhaf Index"
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf