Rosanna Coviello wanted to advance her career. The New Jersey native had been working as a compliance analyst at Gladstone Wealth Partners for a few years and was ready for her next step.
She looked into law school but wasn’t certain she could make the three-year commitment of time and energy.
“My ultimate goal was to become a chief compliance officer, but I don’t need a J.D. to do that,” Coviello said. “I wanted to gain some additional knowledge about financial services compliance and learn more about law before deciding if law school was the right path for me.”
So instead of going after a J.D., Coviello is pursuing a Master of Legal Studies degree at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, New Jersey.
The MLS, also known as an MSL, is a one-year program designed to educate students about law, not to prepare them to practice law.
An attorney who represents clients usually must graduate from a three-year law school, pass the bar exam, and then stay up-to-date through continued education.
But many, like Coviello, have no desire to represent clients. They just need to gain legal knowledge, which makes the MLS the better option for them.
Students who enroll in the MLS program at Seton Hall University can focus on general legal studies or select one of five concentrations: health and hospital law; pharmaceutical and medical device law and compliance; law and the creative industries; privacy law and cyber security; and — the one Coviello chose — financial services compliance.
Brian Sheppard, associate dean for J.D. and graduate admissions at Seton Hall University, said obtaining an MLS is one of the best ways to advance in a heavily regulated field such as the financial services industry.
“A lot of people are more interested in the field they are working in, or want to work in, than in the legal profession as a whole. And for them, it often makes more sense to go the MLS route,” Sheppard said. “While students are required to complete some basic first-year courses in law, they are able to tailor the program to their specific areas of interest.”
Seton Hall’s MLS program is offered entirely online or in a hybrid format with some online study and some in-person classes. It can be completed in as little as a year if a student attends full time, but part time students may take two years or more.
Not only does it cost less than a J.D., but it offers more schedule flexibility, making it easier for working students.
“In fields where there is a lot of law-related work that does not need a lawyer, like privacy and health care compliance, the return on investment from an MLS degree can be even higher than for a J.D.,” Sheppard said. “The MLS is in demand because it can be fine-tuned to the needs of that particular field.”
Read the full story in the Spring 2023 issue of preLaw magazine.
