lawyers and legal recruiters ...

[pinkdutchtulips]

Please tell me that if a resume came across your desk and the person's JD came from an online school - regardless of bar passage - would it find its way into the round file ?

[Deleted]

Probably.

[Deleted]

trash

[Deleted]

Undoubtedly. But honestly, you're unlikely to get interviewed here if you went to a law school that isn't top 30 or so unless a parent is a client or along those lines.

[kadams767]

Wait, there are online law schools now?

[Deleted]

Is Cooley still the only one?

Or are there unaccredited ones in CA too?

[Deleted]

Jan 24, 2013 13:50:50 GMT -5 kadams767 said:

Wait, there are online law schools now?

Well this too.

And they're accredited?

[Deleted]

From wikipedia:

No correspondence or online law schools are accredited by the ABA[3] or by state bar examiners.[4] However, twelve correspondence and online law schools, although not accredited, are registered by the Committee of Bar Examiners of the State Bar of California. This means that the graduates of these distance learning law schools can sit for the California Bar Examination and, under varying circumstances, the bar exams in many other states.

[Deleted]

Ah, California...

[Deleted]

Garbage. Also, Cooley is actually a B&M law school.Unbelievable, I know

[Deleted]

Keeping delusions alive in so many walks of life.

See also Aspiring Actors.

[Deleted]

Jan 24, 2013 13:55:57 GMT -5 @mjmksb04 said:

Garbage. Also, Cooley is actually a B&M law school.Unbelievable, I know

Oh, I know that. For some reason, I thought they were exploring (or had) an online program.

[pinkdutchtulips]

of course ONLY in CA ... someone had the nerve to question why on i earth i would say that a JD from a non ABA approved school isn't worth it.

[kadams767]

Jan 24, 2013 13:57:32 GMT -5 pinkdutchtulips said:

So, it's been awhile since I went through admissions. Even if you pass the bar, can you be admitted without an ABA-accredited degree?

[lishie]

I have no say in hiring for attorneys, but I can tell you that if I got that on a resume for the legal interns that I hire, it would probably hit the circular file.

[pinkdutchtulips]

Jan 24, 2013 14:04:03 GMT -5 kadams767 said:

Jan 24, 2013 13:57:32 GMT -5 pinkdutchtulips said:

So, it's been awhile since I went through admissions. Even if you pass the bar, can you be admitted without an ABA-accredited degree?

you can .. the husband of a former boss of mine graduated from a non ABA approved school (that has since been accredited by the ABA) and not only successfully passed the bar but he also later on GRADED the bar exam.

there's just a bunch of hoops you have to jump through (the biggest being passing the baby bar after your 1L so you can go onto 2L and 3L) and most would rather skip those hoops if they can.

[h]

Jan 24, 2013 13:49:08 GMT -5 v said:

Undoubtedly. But honestly, you're unlikely to get interviewed here if you went to a law school that isn't top 30 or so unless a parent is a client or along those lines.

This.  Online?  No way.

[genet313]

It undoubtedly would, but honestly, I question whether I would know it was an online law school from the resume...how can you tell?  

[Deleted]

Jan 24, 2013 14:13:02 GMT -5 genet313 said:

It undoubtedly would, but honestly, I question whether I would know it was an online law school from the resume...how can you tell?  

Google?

Besides, if I haven't heard of a law school, it would be trashed anyway.

While my firm isn't BigLaw and don't require top law school credentials, two of the partners went to T14 schools, and the other partner, and all of the associates, went to the same T2 law school.  I doubt they'd hire below T2.

[genet313]

Jan 24, 2013 14:19:11 GMT -5 @iheartcosmos said:

Jan 24, 2013 14:13:02 GMT -5 genet313 said:

It undoubtedly would, but honestly, I question whether I would know it was an online law school from the resume...how can you tell?  

Google?

Besides, if I haven't heard of a law school, it would be trashed anyway.

While my firm isn't BigLaw and don't require top law school credentials, two of the partners went to T14 schools, and the other partner, and all of the associates, went to the same T2 law school.  I doubt they'd hire below T2.

OK, so I Googled one.  Check out the notable alumni list of this online law school....somebody hired these people.  AND....some of them are Feds...

www.nwculaw.edu/notable_alumni.html

[Deleted]

Jan 24, 2013 14:03:06 GMT -5 @msstarry said:

My parents ran into a lot of graduates of the YMCA School of Law when they were stationed in TN. Hard to believe anyone took that seriously. Also only a state accredited school, not ABA.

Northeastern Law School started out as a YMCA law school too.

The YMCA law school in TN is now Nashville School of Law. I actually think they turn out a decent product. I wouldn't recommend going there if you want to work in big law, but if you want to be a family law or criminal defense attorney is a good school. They aren't and never will be ABA accredited, but you can take the TN bar and it only costs about $20k for 4 years of part-time. I don't think they are ripping students off the way the new law school down the street from them is (charging $30k/yr for an unaccredited program-they hope to be gain provisional accreditation soon, but still 30k x 3 for something without a track record)

[Deleted]

Jan 24, 2013 14:13:02 GMT -5 genet313 said:

It undoubtedly would, but honestly, I question whether I would know it was an online law school from the resume...how can you tell?  

If the firm is large enough to have a recruiting staff, I'd think the staff would know most law schools.

If not, I'd think they'd google or look it up on US News?  There are some very good schools that lawyers may not recognize as top law schools even though they're ranked very high (particularly if the law school isn't in the firm's region -- like, I would expect everyone here to know how to compare Columbia v. NYU v. Cardozo v. Hofstra etc., but I wouldn't expect them to know whether University of Minnesota is top tier, or ranked higher than Fordham or whatever).

[Deleted]

Jan 24, 2013 14:24:30 GMT -5 genet313 said:

Jan 24, 2013 14:19:11 GMT -5 @iheartcosmos said:

Google?

Besides, if I haven't heard of a law school, it would be trashed anyway.

While my firm isn't BigLaw and don't require top law school credentials, two of the partners went to T14 schools, and the other partner, and all of the associates, went to the same T2 law school.  I doubt they'd hire below T2.

OK, so I Googled one.  Check out the notable alumni list of this online law school....somebody hired these people.  AND....some of them are Feds...

www.nwculaw.edu/notable_alumni.html

That's nice. My firm isn't in California, and they wouldn't be allowed to sit for the bar in my state. Hence, they wouldn't be able to practice here.

[Deleted]

Jan 24, 2013 14:35:25 GMT -5 v said:

Jan 24, 2013 14:13:02 GMT -5 genet313 said:

It undoubtedly would, but honestly, I question whether I would know it was an online law school from the resume...how can you tell?  

If the firm is large enough to have a recruiting staff, I'd think the staff would know most law schools.

If not, I'd think they'd google or look it up on US News?  There are some very good schools that lawyers may not recognize as top law schools even though they're ranked very high (particularly if the law school isn't in the firm's region -- like, I would expect everyone here to know how to compare Columbia v. NYU v. Cardozo v. Hofstra etc., but I wouldn't expect them to know whether University of Minnesota is top tier, or ranked higher than Fordham or whatever).

this. plus if you've never heard of a school, my first instinct as a recruiter is to google it. THere was the British-American School of Law in Birmingham that was purely online and not eligible for any bars except CA

[BravoBravo]

There is no way that any of our clients would have been interested in them.

[WOT?*]

Ach, another reason I moved from CA. The illustrious ADA of my home county is an online school graduate? Wow. And one of those yahoos is actually licensed in Washington? Whodathunkit? At least he's a graduate of UW so he's got some smarts. That must weigh in with some folks.

[honeybadger]

Jan 24, 2013 14:11:21 GMT -5 pinkdutchtulips said:

Jan 24, 2013 14:04:03 GMT -5 kadams767 said:

So, it's been awhile since I went through admissions. Even if you pass the bar, can you be admitted without an ABA-accredited degree?

you can .. the husband of a former boss of mine graduated from a non ABA approved school (that has since been accredited by the ABA) and not only successfully passed the bar but he also later on GRADED the bar exam.

there's just a bunch of hoops you have to jump through (the biggest being passing the baby bar after your 1L so you can go onto 2L and 3L) and most would rather skip those hoops if they can.

Not to sound snooty, but in my experience, being asked to grade the CA Bar isn't a huge honor--most, if not all, of the people I know who passed the first time were asked...

[RandZB]

We are a small firm but we have our pick of lawyers when we are hiring. I doubt a graduate from an online school would even rate a flip to page 2 of their resume.

[Deleted]

We don't advertise job listings so the only way you get hired here is if someone recomends you and you are approved by the right people (both political parties). So sure it could happen.

[wanderlustfoodie]

It would go straight to the trash but first I would send an email to that person encouraging them to utilize their professional and personal networks to find a job.