Consortium Schools Among Best Part-Time Law School Programs for Practical Training

Last month, preLaw Magazine released its list of best practical training schools for part-time students. preLaw considered 97 part-time programs, all having 20 or more students, and 22 were selected for the magazine's top honors.

Four Educating Tomorrow's Lawyers Consortium schools were named to the list:

• Georgetown University Law Center
• Hofstra University Maurice A. Deane School of Law
• Loyola University Chicago School of Law
• University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law

The criteria used in grading the programs was the same used by the magazine in ranking the best law schools overall for practical training, which appeared in the National Jurists' spring issue. The number of simulation positions filled for part-time students, the number of faculty-supervised clinical positions for part-time students, and the number of field placement positions filled for part-time students were among the considerations.

With the push to make law school more experiential, many have questioned how such an approach would translate to part-time students. Part-time students often have full-time jobs or other commitments that may not enable them to spend time in law clinics, internships, or even courses simulating client interaction—depending on when and how they are offered.

Riley Combelic is a third-year law student at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and contributes to IAALS Online. Please direct inquiries about this post to iaals@du.edu.