Summary: Elon University School of Law made history this week by announcing a new curriculum and a groundbreaking model for legal education. This will be the nation’s first standard JD program lasting less than three years. This is also the nation’s first law school program requiring a full-time, faculty-directed residency in the practice of law, and also the first to offer lab experience with practicing attorneys to all first-year students.
In its news release this week, Elon Law announced a stunning new model of legal education based on speed and pragmatism without compromising the quality of legal education. The school said the move has been made “In keeping with the school’s original vision to be a pioneering ‘law school with a difference.”
David Gergen, Chair of Elon University School of Law Advisory Board said it was a “creative and exciting model of legal education.” While James R. Silkenat, immediate past president of the American Bar Association said, “I commend Elon Law for taking important new steps that align the law school with recommendations recently advanced by the American Bar Association Task Force on the Future of Legal Education.”
Silkenat added, “Full-time residencies-in-practice and leadership training are precisely the kinds of creative innovations we need from American law schools.”
Highlights of the new program includes:
• Full time residencies in the practice of law
• Experiential learning integrated throughout the curriculum
• Four-person professional advising team
• Seven-trimester schedule
• Reduced total tuition for the entering Class of 2015
The school claims the new curriculum is aimed at better positioning students to excel in the rapidly evolving legal profession.
Ellen Gregg, member of Elon University School of Law Advisory Board, and a partner at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, said, “Law schools have been criticized for not changing quickly enough to adapt to the new normal in the legal industry … Elon’s new approach is a uniquely complete program of legal training. The fact that Elon can lower the overall cost to students and finish the job in less than three years is just icing on the cake.”