"I am uneasy about classes in which students learn entirely from
home, in front of a computer screen, with no face-to-face interaction
with other students or instructors. So much of legal education - and
legal practice - is a shared enterprise, a genuinely interactive
endeavor. The process inevitably loses something vital when students
learn in isolation, even if they can engage in virtual interaction with
peers and teachers. I am troubled by ventures like Concord, where a
student can get a J.D. (although the school is still unaccredited)
without ever laying eyes on a fellow student or professor."11
Presumably, Justice Ginsburg would have felt even more uneasy had she
known that Concord admits students who perform all of their
undergraduate work - in some cases only two years - at Internet or
correspondence universities. This means that a person can obtain a J.D.
from Concord (or any of the other nine correspondence law schools in
California) without ever attending an undergraduate or law school class
(and possibly even a high school class, if home schooled).12
In response to critics, Jack Goetz, dean of Concord University School
of Law, asserts that "[t]he reality is that many law schools still have
first-year classes of 70-80 people in which a student has very little
interaction with the professor."13 "Our
state-of-the-art technology provides greater access to professors and
fellow students via instructor-led chat rooms, extensive working
knowledge of online electronic research engines, and an invaluable
preparation for the practice of law."14 Concord
students can communicate with their professors via email and telephone,
and get to know their classmates through online discussions.15 Online lectures are available 24 hours a day, seven
days a week, and the curriculum is approved by a board of professors
from ABA-approved law schools.16 And tuition at
Concord is much lower than at most private law schools - $5,160 per
year.17
Wisconsin Bar Examination
What does all this have to do with Wisconsin? Thanks to the 1998
amendment to SCR 40.04(1), Concord graduates now are eligible to take
the Wisconsin bar examination. As prescribed by SCR 40.04(1), Concord is
a "law school whose graduates are eligible to take the bar examination
of the state ... in which the law school is located [California]."18 Thus, Concord graduates who pass the California bar
examination and have been admitted to practice in California are
eligible to sit for the Wisconsin bar examination under SCR 40.04(1)(b).
Wisconsin has become, perhaps unwittingly, one of only two states in the
nation to allow correspondence law school graduates to sit for the bar
examination.19 And it did so with little or no
fanfare.
As part of a select group, Wisconsin may experience an influx of
correspondence law school graduates over the next few years because,
besides California, graduates of such schools have no place else to go.
And migration is not the only issue. There is nothing to prevent
Wisconsin residents from completing the degree requirements at Concord
(or any of the other nine correspondence law schools in California),
taking and passing the California bar examination, and then sitting for
the Wisconsin bar examination. Moreover, Wisconsin may become a gateway
for graduates of correspondence law schools to practice in other states.
There are at least four states - Indiana, Iowa, Vermont, and Virginia -
that admit (on motion) Wisconsin attorneys after five years of practice
even if they did not graduate from ABA-approved law schools. The 1998
amendment to SCR 40.04(1) may force these states to reconsider whether
to grant reciprocity to Wisconsin lawyers.
