Online Law Degree

There are a surprising number of schools that offer online law degrees. The reason the number is surprising is because except in rare cases you won't be able to become a lawyer with an online law degree. That doesn't mean there is no value in pursuing a law degree online, there are plenty of good reasons to get a law degree that don't involve becoming a practising lawyer. It is however important to keep in mind that if your goal is to become a lawyer you are likely going to need to find away to attend a traditional law school.

Getting an online law degree is certainly a possibility, there are a number of schools that offer them. Becoming a lawyer with an online law degree is another matter altogether. As it currently stands the only state in which you can use an online law degree to become a practising lawyer is in California and even this is tricky. There is no real reason why a lawyer couldn't be trained online, in some countries, like the UK it is quite common for lawyers to have online degrees. In the US it isn't really an option. This is because the state bar associations are run by lawyers and they have a vested interested in limiting the number of practising lawyers. The fewer lawyers there are the more they get paid.

internet education law degree

If you can't become a lawyer with an online law degree is it worth pursuing one? In many cases it is, a law degree can be valuable in many fields besides law. The most obvious would be business in which a good understanding of the law is always useful. More importantly law school teaches skills like research and writing, useful skills in any career field. Perhaps the most important skill taught in law school is how to persuade people, this is something all lawyers need to be able to do and it is valuable in almost all aspects of life.

If you decide that you do want a career in the legal field and attending law school full time isn't an option for you, it may be wise to consider a career as a paralegal. A paralegal is an important member of any legal practice and performs many of the functions of a lawyer. Becoming a paralegal usually requires a bachelors degree and there are several schools that offer them online.

There are good reasons to consider pursuing an online law degree, but becoming a lawyer isn't one of them. With the exception of California no state allows you to become a member of the bar with an online degree. Even in California the process is not easy. A law degree is however valuable training for most careers in business so getting one certainly isn't a waste of time. If you do pursue a law degree online it is important that you research any school you plan to attend, there can be a pretty big variation in quality from one school to another.