Summary: Baylor Law School is offering the first Executive LL.M. in Litigation Management starting in the fall of this year.
Baylor Law School will be the first law school to offer an Executive LL.M. in Litigation Management starting in the fall of 2018. The law school created the master’s degree program in response to problems plaguing professionals in the legal field, which is to strategically manage litigation in order to keep litigation costs from escalating.
In the announcement from Baylor Media Communications, the law school explained that only attorneys with at least three years of experience practicing will be able to enroll in the program, which will be online and in-person. A group of the country’s top experts, attorneys, and judges will direct the program. The courses include a guide through the fundamentals of 21st-century litigation management and strategy, managing complex arbitration and ADR issues, managing e-Discovery, data analytics and cybersecurity, proving and attacking damages, regulatory issues and practical strategies for successfully navigating a trial.
David Dial of Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial said, “Litigation is a fact of life for businesses in America. Generally, I inform clients that litigation is ‘bad for business.’ However, the negative impact can be minimized by effectively managing cases. Doing that necessarily involves understanding the process, procedures, and tactics of litigation and developing a working relationship with your attorneys. Successfully and efficiently managing litigation involves teamwork between the client and the attorneys. This cannot happen unless one truly understands the process and has the tools necessary for managing litigation. I believe the Baylor Executive LL.M. in Litigation Management will provide that understanding and equip its participants with the necessary tools.”
The program lasts 14 months with an expected 10 hours a week of work through interactive online learning. The participants are required to meet three times during the course of the program in Waco at Baylor Law for two-week long residential learning experiences. During this intense in-person meeting, the attorneys will get to work closely with experts as they create and master the materials.
Baylor Law professor and co-creator of the program, Liz Fraley, said, “Graduates of the program will leave with an agile sense of both the business and the strategy of litigation. We’re addressing a key issue both for clients and for attorneys: how to manage complex and expensive litigation in a way that is both cost effective and goal oriented.”
Jim Wren, a Baylor Law professor and contributor to the program, added, “We have been talking almost every day to people from around the nation who are the cream of the crop and who are already doing litigation management well. We’re going out there and finding the people doing various aspects in the very best way and we’re bringing them in. It’s going to be a melting pot of the best of practices out there.”
Baylor Law has started accepting applications for the inaugural class, which is set to begin this fall.
Do you think the program will be highly beneficial? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
To learn more about other master of laws degrees, read these articles:
- Seattle University Law School Adds Three Master of Laws Degrees
- Two New Master’s Degrees Created by UConn Law
- Francis King Carey School of Law Adds Two Specializations to Master of Science in Law Program
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