NIRF 2020 Rank | Name of Institute/College | NIRF Score |
---|---|---|
1 | National Law School of India University, Bengaluru | 78.66 |
2 | National Law University, Delhi | 74.02 |
3 | NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad | 73.12 |
4 | Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur | 71.44 |
The School of Law at University of Virginia has an application deadline of March 3. The full-time program application... Read More »
The School of Law at Washington and Lee University has an application deadline of July 1. The full-time program... Read More »
The law school at William & Mary Law School has an application deadline of March 1. The full-time program application... Read More »
The Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University has an application deadline of April 30. The full-time program... Read More »
The School of Law at University of Richmond has an application deadline of March 1. The full-time program application... Read More »
The law school at Appalachian School of Law has an application deadline of Aug. 10. The full-time program application... Read More »
The School of Law at Liberty University has an application deadline of Aug. 1. The full-time program application fee at... Read More »
Current estimates place the cost of three years of law school at $85,000 to $148,000.
A supervising attorney can charge their apprentice a fee, but McClenney said her supervisor, Virginia Beach lawyer Richard Doummar, didn’t. Currently, there are just nine people participating in Virginia’s program, said Brooke O’Kelly, an investigator for the board of examiners.
Nationally, only 28% of law readers passed the bar in 2013, compared with 73% who went to law school, according to the American Bar Journal.
Only three other states offer the opportunity to obtain a law license that way: California, Vermont and Washington.
Likely the most famous current legal apprentice is reality television star Kim Kardashian, who announced last year that she’s participating in a four-year program in California and hopes to take the bar exam by 2022.
But the married mother of two young girls wasn’t willing to take on the expense of law school. She already had worked her way through college, delivering Chinese food and cleaning houses, and was trying to save for her daughters’ college educations.
Padrick said that while he’s grateful to have been able to get his law license through the program, he usually discourages people from entering it.
According to § 54.1-3914 of the Code of Virginia any attorney who fails for two successive years to pay the annual fees shall forfeit his license to practice law in the commonwealth.
All Active lawyers are required to complete a minimum of 4 live interactive CLE credit hours each year. Traditional live “classroom” CLE programs count towards the live requirement. Programs delivered via teleconference or webcast where there is an opportunity to interact with the speaker in real time also qualify as live.
“A few classes that help preparation for the bar exam are Evidence, Trusts and Estates, and Criminal Procedure. These aren’t mandatory courses in law school, but they are on the bar exam — it’s a lot easier to refresh foundational knowledge of these subjects as you study for the bar than to learn them from scratch. That being said, it’s more important to take courses that stimulate intellectual growth and curiosity in law school than just to prepare for the bar. It is very possible and achievable to learn all the material with just background law school knowledge, even without those courses, in preparation for the bar. Taking even one of these courses would be enough to prepare for the bar while leaving room in the schedule for other interesting courses.
That being said, it’s more important to take courses that stimulate intellectual growth and curiosity in law school than just to prepare for the bar. It is very possible and achievable to learn all the material with just background law school knowledge, even without those courses, in preparation for the bar.
The current requirements specify that the student must spend at least twenty-five hours per week for at least 40 weeks each year engaged in required, in-office study.
If a student is able and willing to make the necessary personal commitment to this method of legal study, he or she must then find an attorney to supervise the study; and there are limits on the kind of attorney who is qualified to undertake the task:
The attorney must be deemed to have the professional character and standing in the community, not only to practice law, but to be able to teach the student how to practice law. The attorney is not only supervising the student's process of acquiring knowledge, he or she is setting a professional example for the student.
One attorney is essentially undertaking the task of an entire faculty of a law school where each professor has his or her own areas of expertise, and where students and faculty daily interact on points of legal history and principle, as well as the changes in case law and statutory revisions.
Much has been said about the glamour of the Law Reader Program as an alternative to law school in newspaper articles like "Despite Opposition, More Learn Law Like Lincoln Did," or "Like Thomas Jefferson, Some Skipped Law School.” Given the changes in our society and in our legal system since the days of Jefferson and Lincoln, not enough has been said about the very special circumstances that are required for the Law Reader Program to properly prepare persons to practice law in Virginia.
And finally, the attorney must be willing to accept the responsibility for the dual commitment involved. There must be a commitment to the student to ensure that he or she receives a quality legal education, and there must also be a commitment to the legal profession to ensure that any student certified to take the Virginia Bar Examination is properly equipped to practice law in a manner benefiting the people of Virginia.
The date of the first law school in the United States is debated, but the general consensus is that it was sometime during the late 1700s. We had lawyers before that time, however.
Each state's exact rules are different. In Virginia, for example, a legal apprentice cannot be paid by the supervising attorney. In Washington, they must be paid by the attorney.
Most lawyers do attend law school, but there are some advantages to avoiding it if you can manage it. You'll avoid the high cost of law school and perhaps gain more on-the-ground experience shadowing a working lawyer.
Finally, the reality is that it's hard to pass the bar exam without at least some law school experience. Although not impossible, the pass rates are low. It’s risky to spend years as a legal apprentice if you never manage to pass the bar exam. In fairness, however, this is also an issue faced by students of non-ABA-accredited law schools and even some ABA-accredited ones.
Finally, it's indisputable that the average legal apprentice will have more hands-on experience than most new law school graduates. At most, the average law grad has done one clinic and perhaps a handful of summer jobs, internships, or externships. Most of a student's time is taken up with classes, particularly in the first two years.