Summary: Enrollment at law schools across the country, including Elon, continues to drop, according to the ABA.
Elon University School of Law has only been open since 2006. Now, the school is working to distance itself from the traditional ways law has been taught, according to The Pendulum.
The dean of Elon Law, Luke Bierman, said, “The school’s early years were characterized with differences in the curriculum from a traditional law school. The school is recognized for being innovative. That allowed us to take a more thoughtful and bold change to the curriculum.”
The unemployment rate has increased over the last three years, according to Elon Law’s Center for Professional Development’s Employment and Bar Exam Passage Statistics.
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The class of 2013 saw 1.64 percent unemployed and not seeking employment at all. The 2011 and 2012 graduates were seeking employment nine months following graduation.
Bierman said that the five-year employment rate for Elon Law is 90 percent.
Elon offers an externship, which is required, and the ability to earn a law degree within two-and-a-half years.
An associate professor of law at Elon, Michael Rich, said, “I think that the pressure that’s being put right now on law schools has forced us to innovate and think more creatively about who we are and what we do.”
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The shortened JD program will be offered by Elon in the fall of 2015. The cost of the new program will drop by $14,000 for a total of $100,000.
The program will take seven trimesters to complete and students will be able to graduate in December and then take the bar exam in February.
The national unemployment rate for law school graduates has increased, according to the American Bar Association.
Close to 10 percent of graduates from 2012 and 2013 are unemployed and seeking employment. The unemployment rate at Elon Law is close to twice that number.
From the Class of 2011 to the Class of 2013, Elon graduates increased to 122 from 99, but since that time enrollment has stabilized. There are 112 students in the Class of 2017.
“I think that a law degree is a worthwhile investment for students that have a goal,” Rich said. “I don’t know if it’s good for students trying to figure things out. It’s almost too intense to provide that time to decide what you want to be when you grow up.”
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Source: The Pendulum
Image credit: Elon Law School