Legal News

Online-educated attorneys admitted to U.S. Supreme Court

By Jason Siegel

Four graduates of Concord Law School became the first completely online-educated attorneys to be admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court this week.

Concord Law School, of Kaplan University, was founded in 1998 and is an entirely online law school.

Four graduates were admitted in open court: Larry David, an international businessman and attorney in Pasadena, Calif., who volunteers at the Los Angeles County Bar Association Barristers Domestic Violence Project; Michael Kaner, a dentist in Newtown, Pa., who is a consultant on risk management and forensic dentistry; Ross Mitchell, a computer systems consultant in West Newton, Pa., who is advocating online legal education and the expansion of the multijurisdictional practice of law; and Sandusky Shelton, a retired telecommunications manager from Clio, Calif., who handles court-appointed juvenile dependency cases.

To be admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, each attorney must be a member with good standing of the bar for three years and be sponsored by two attorneys already admitted to the Supreme Court.

About 40% of students at Concord have at least one master's degree, often pursing a legal degree as a second career or to enhance their own career.

Several have MDs, MBAs and PhDs. Since Concord graduated its first class in 2002, more than 700 of its students have completed a Juris Doctor or Executive Juris Doctor program. The school merged with Kaplan last fall.

-- Amanda Bronstad

** According to their website, Concord JD graduates can apply for admission to the State Bar of California, but the school is not approved by the American Bar Association.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on March 21, 2008 (boomark / email).