Zoom School of Law?

• Author: Kathryn Hobbis
• Position: J.D., Georgetown University Law Center (expected May 2022); B.A. Hamilton College (2017)
• Pages: 1025-1041

Zoom School of Law?

KATHRYN HOBBIS*

INTRODUCTION

The novel coronavirus pandemic forced law schools to close in compliance with

state and local health guidance and quickly pivot to virtual education in a way that

runs afoul to American Bar Association (ABA) standards and exposes inconsistencies

with the current rules.

1

While the ABA has responded and allowed schools to operate

in ways that are not in compliance with standards, the pandemic provides an opportu-

nity to consider what rules law schools may abide by and how they can be updated to

better reflect our current reality. This Note will use the pandemic to reconsider law

school requirements by (I) laying out the current state of requirements (II) proposing a

policy change; and (III) analyzing the impacts of the policy change.

A. REQUIREMENTS THAT LAW SCHOOLS ABIDE BY

Law schools are a unique entity to look at and suggest policy for because the

body that governs them is not tied to any state.

2

In order to maintain accreditation,

law schools must follow the standards set out by the American Bar Association

Section of Legal Aid and Admission to the Bar.

3

The Coronavirus pandemic

quickly brought the public health rules to the forefront of law school deans’

minds and required law schools to stop in person teaching and move to online

classes.

4

Every state and locality has set out their own public health guidelines

that institutions and people in the state and locality must abide by. Each law

school has to chart its own path forward considering both the ABA standards they

need to follow to maintain accreditation and the state and local public health

guidelines that the school must follow in order to be open.

B. CURRENT ABA STANDARDS GOVERNING DISTANCE EDUCATION

The ABA is responsible for law school accreditation and in this role the

ABA has set out Standards and Rules of Procedures for Approval of Law

* J.D., Georgetown University Law Center (expected May 2022); B.A. Hamilton College (2017) © 2021

Kathryn Hobbis.

1. Gabriel Kuris, The Impact of the Coronavirus on Legal Education, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT (Aug.

24, 2020, 9:24 AM), https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/law-admissions-lowdown/articles/the-impact-

of-the-coronavirus-on-legal-education [https://perma.cc/2F4M-PM7D].

2. Law School Accreditation, AM. BAR ASS’N., https://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/

accreditation/ [https://perma.cc/9BTU-X5EM] (last visited Nov. 14, 2020).

3. Id.

4. Kuris, supra note 1.

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Schools.

5

In order to sit for the bar examination, most states require examinees to

hold law degrees from ABA accredited institutions making the ABA the first bar-

rier to entry that people seeking to enter the legal profession face.

6

These stand-

ards include varying requirements ranging from the organization of law school to

faculty qualifications to the academic program.

7

Most relevant to this Note is ABA Standard 311 of the Standards and Rules of

Procedure for Approval of Law Schools.

8

Standard 311 lays out the requirements

for schools’ Academic Program and Academic Calendar.

9

This standard includes

requirements for how many credit hours students must complete in order to grad-

uate, how many credits a student may take per semester, and how long it can take

for a student to complete their legal studies at the school.

10

Under Standard 311

(e), “A law school may grant up to ten credit hours required for the J.D. degree

for distance education courses during the first one-third of a student’s program of

legal education.”

11

Under Standard 311(a), full-time law students attend school

for three years and take at least eighty-three credit hours.

12

This means that if the

credit hours are equally spread out over the three years of legal education, each

law student takes approximately twenty-seven credit hours a year. ABA Standard

311(e) creates a de facto rule that first year law students are unable to take their

full course load through distance education meaning that law students are unable to

complete their legal studies by taking only distance education classes.

13

Currently

there are no ABA accredited fully virtual J.D. programs.

14

This Note will argue that

the ABA needs to change their rules in order to create consistency with other ABA

rules as the current guidelines for law school accreditation are inconsistent.

15

In Section II, this Note will explain the recent changes to ABA accreditation

standards due to the Coronavirus pandemic and lay out the suggested rule change.

In Section III, the proposed rule change will be examined beginning with an anal-

ysis of benefits provided by in-person education followed by a review of other

ABA requirements dealing with distance education. When reviewing other ABA

requirements, this Note will look to find ways that this rule change can bring the

ABA accreditation standards into consistency with other ABA policies. This

5. Law School Accreditation, see note 2.

6. Can You Take the Bar Exam Without Going to Law School? INDEED (Dec 17, 2020) https://www.indeed.com/career-

advice/career-development/can-you-take-the-bar-exam-without-going-to-law-school [https://perma.cc/R6VR-FTKK].

7. ABA STANDARDS AND RULE OF PROCEDURE FOR APPROVAL OF LAW SCHOOLS (AM. BAR ASS’N 2020)

[hereinafter ABA ACCREDITATION STANDARDS].

8. Id.

9. Id. § 311.

10. Id.

11. Id. § 311(e).

12. Id. § 311(a).

13. Id.

14. Jordan Friedman, 6 Ways to Study Law Online, U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT (Mar. 26, 2018, 10:02

AM) https://www.usnews.com/higher-education/online-education/articles/2018-03-26/6-ways-to-study-law-

online [https://perma.cc/XWQ6-NVR8].

15. Infra Section II(B).

1026 THE GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF LEGAL ETHICS [Vol. 34:1025