ASU launches online law degree to expand access to justice

TEMPE, Ariz. - A first-of-its-kind program is now at ASU—a part-time and online law school—with hopes of expanding access to justice nationwide.

What we know:

"One of the barriers to attending law school is often having to quit a full-time job, pick up and move to a city that has a law school," said Angela Banks of the ASU JD law program. "So we thought one of the ways to address that challenge was to create a program that was part-time and online."

Making law school more accessible is the goal, as the ASU law JD program allows students to take classes at their own pace on their own time, in their own space.

"It’s really been just a godsend to be able to work at my own pace, on my own schedule. It’s still incredibly rigorous," said online JD student Bruce Orr.

Big picture view:

Orr is a part of the new program, attending all the way from Texas.

"I’ll take a couple meetings throughout the day with clients and working on some instructional design and planning work," Orr said. "And in any free time, I am either reading, listening to a lecture, or writing a response paper or studying for a test. It’s amazing being able to collaborate with such a different group of people and to have this opportunity available as a small-town guy in Texas."

Timeline:

The major difference is the timeline. It takes about 10 semesters for the part-time program compared to six semesters for the full-time program. But the goal, from a university standpoint, is the same.

"One of the things that we thought about is there are a lot of access to justice issues in our country right now," Banks said. "And one of the factors contributing to that is an insufficient number of lawyers, so one of the things we thought about was how can we produce more lawyers who will go into public service and practice in rural areas?"

What you can do:

The applications for this program open on April 1.