The University of Washington Tacoma and Seattle University School of Law teamed up to offer a hybrid initiative, South Sound Hybrid Hub, to help ensure residents of Tacoma and the South Sound region have greater access to legal education and careers and legal services.
This collaboration will provide significant in-person and virtual programming, counseling, networking, employment and experiential learning opportunities and resources for UW Tacoma undergraduates and students in Seattle U Law’s pathbreaking Flex JD hybrid-online degree program.
UW Tacoma will be home to Seattle U Law’s new initiative.
“Our law school has deep roots in Tacoma and the South Puget Sound,” said Eduardo Peñalver, professor of law and president of Seattle U Law. “This initiative will provide an excellent opportunity to strengthen that relationship.”
Dr. Sheila Edwards Lange, chancellor of UW Tacoma, said both UW Tacoma and Seattle University School of Law share a goal of bridging the equity divide and making law school an attainable goal for first-generation and underrepresented students.
Seattle U Law launched the hybrid-online Flex JD program in 2021 to make it possible for aspiring lawyers who live in areas without convenient access to a law school, and who may have families and jobs that keep them in place, to earn law degrees while continuing to serve their communities. Currently, one-quarter of all Flex JD students hail from the South Sound region, in part because Tacoma is one of the largest communities in the nation without a law school.
Through a hybrid format, students can earn a law degree by completing most coursework online, with just a few in-person, weekend class sessions each year on Seattle University’s campus.
The South Sound Hybrid Hub will host Flex JD activities for the benefit of students not only located in the South Sound but also elsewhere.
Seattle U Law also is rolling out Hybrid Hubs in Anchorage, Alaska, and in the Yakima Valley. Each Hybrid Hub will have a founding principal partner institution that will connect with other participating universities in the area to create the greatest impact.
Anthony E. Varona, dean of Seattle U Law, conceived the Hybrid Hub concept after conducting a listening and learning tour with stakeholders throughout Washington and Alaska. Outside of Seattle and Spokane, both states have many legal deserts where there is not a law school.
“Hybrid legal education reflects the reality that the practice of law is now and will continue to be hybridized, utilizing online platforms strategically and in a pedagogically sound manner, with important in-person, physical engagement opportunities provided in partnership with key hub-based institutions,” Varona said.
Patricia Sully, founding director of Legal Pathways at UW Tacoma, will support activities of the South Sound Hybrid Hub. Sully, 2011 magna cum laude graduate of Seattle U Law, previously served as policy director for the Public Defender Association and assistant director of the Access to Justice Institute.
In addition to serving Seattle U Law’s Flex JD students, the Hub is exploring a variety of programming that will benefit UW Tacoma’s undergraduate students, including an accelerated “Pathway to Admission” program.
The law school’s faculty and administrators will also support pre-law academic advising as part of UW Tacoma’s Legal Pathways. A variety of events held on UW Tacoma’s campus — including public lectures, legal employer gatherings, Seattle U Law alumni receptions, legal career panels and more — will help undergraduate students build their legal knowledge and connections.
