Case Western Reserve School of Law, in Cleveland, Ohio, is launching a part-time JD program that will be fully remote with no in-person residency or visitation requirements. Students will be taught by the same faculty teaching in-person courses.
It is the 18th distance education program to receive a variance from the American Bar Association. Three law schools offer full-time online J.D.s – Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio and University of Hawai‘i at Manoa – William S. Richardson School of Law. The other 15 schools offer part-time programs.
Additional law schools offer distance education programs that fit within the ABA standards, which now allow for 50% of credits online.
Case Western Reserve said students in its program will enjoy a small cohort size that will allow for networking and building key relationships, and remote students will have access to extracurriculars such as certain law journals, moot court and mock trial teams. Depending on where the law students are located, there may also be events they can go to in person.
Applications for the online JD program are currently open.
Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center also announced it will offer a hybrid J.D. program in New York City, with in-person classes meeting only one day a week on Sundays.
In August, the American Bar Association approved part-time hybrid programs at Duquesne University Thomas R. Kline School of Law in Pittsburgh, Albany Law School in New York and University of Dayton School of Law in Ohio.
