I'm not as concerned about the employability for a few reasons: 1) many of these students appear to be "non-traditional students who bring extremely interesting and rare skills, and 2) online degrees, taken while working full time, will leave students with relatively low debt levels, 3) many of these students are enhancing existing skill sets rather than trying to break into law as a zero-experience associate.
I do agree that people with online law degrees would be at a very severe disadvantage in the job market if they're just the standard "history major with law degree" looking for a job with a firm or other entry level law job. If that's the case, I'd agree that they might want to avoid an online degree (honestly, you might want to consider avoiding law school altogether from what I've read lately).
But think about some of these students here... one case is particularly interesting - an earthquake engineer who (according to the article) "will take over as in-house counsel at his engineering firm, and he figures he will be among the first to understand both the mathematics and the law surrounding earthquakes." This guy has nothing to do with "entry level" law jobs. He's very unique, and it sounds like he almost certainly would never have gotten this legal training without an on-line option. Does it really make sense to deny someone like this entry to the bar, because we already have "enough" 24 year old history majors with no work experience who have decided to go $150K+ in debt to get a traditional law degree?
I read an interesting article about on-line law schools a while back.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3078930/ns/technology_and_science-...
I'm not as concerned about the employability for a few reasons: 1) many of these students appear to be "non-traditional students who bring extremely interesting and rare skills, and 2) online degrees, taken while working full time, will leave students with relatively low debt levels, 3) many of these students are enhancing existing skill sets rather than trying to break into law as a zero-experience associate.
I do agree that people with online law degrees would be at a very severe disadvantage in the job market if they're just the standard "history major with law degree" looking for a job with a firm or other entry level law job. If that's the case, I'd agree that they might want to avoid an online degree (honestly, you might want to consider avoiding law school altogether from what I've read lately).
But think about some of these students here... one case is particularly interesting - an earthquake engineer who (according to the article) "will take over as in-house counsel at his engineering firm, and he figures he will be among the first to understand both the mathematics and the law surrounding earthquakes." This guy has nothing to do with "entry level" law jobs. He's very unique, and it sounds like he almost certainly would never have gotten this legal training without an on-line option. Does it really make sense to deny someone like this entry to the bar, because we already have "enough" 24 year old history majors with no work experience who have decided to go $150K+ in debt to get a traditional law degree?