Widening the Lens on Vermont Law
Headlines of the school's recent challenges are hiding a bigger story of an innovative curriculum with a focus on the evolving business of law
August 02, 2018 at 10:02 AM
3 minute read
That The Trials of Vermont Law School opined
- In 2013, Vermont Law started offering an accelerated, 2-year J.D. program. This remains one of only a handful of such programs at independent law schools and ends up costing two-thirds the cost of a three-year program. (see: Mihaly: Law school in two years? We're doing it, September 5, 2013, accessed July 26, 2018).
- The school has had long partnerships with global institutions, offering a total of 10 distinct dual-degree programs. For example, students can earn both an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (just down the road from the school) and a Masters in Environmental Law from Vermont Law.
- Vermont Law is one of the few schools to implement online J.D. and Masters of Law programs as options (the J.D. a hybrid online and in-person program, as the ABA has not yet accredited any fully-online J.D. programs). Vermont's foray into this space dates to 2006.
- Vermont was one of the first law schools to significantly invest in experiential learning by allowing students to earn a full semester of academic credit in an off-campus apprenticeship. The current courses include the Semester in Practice, a Judicial Externship, and a Part-Time JD Externship.
- The school is among the leaders in the recently-released Law School Innovation Index, a project by Professor Dan Linna of Michigan State University Law School. Driving this are 8 separate courses that are focused on legal service delivery innovation and technology. Only three other law schools have more such courses, and none are independent schools. In fact, Vermont's Center for Legal Innovation, founded in 2015 (of which I am a Fellow), and its leaders have been profiled in recent articles by the ABA, Forbes, the Legal Executive Institute and the National Jurist.
- Lastly, for at least the last 5 years Vermont Law has not only attended ALM's annual LegalTech show in New York, but it has taken a sponsor's booth to promote the school's spirit of innovation and provide networking assistance and exposure to emerging legal technologies for the students that attend the show.
- Skopos Labs: An AI-powered research platform that turns unstructured policymaking data into accurate predictions of risk and opportunity,
- Text-A-Lawyer: Featured in a recent Law.com story: This 'Serial Entrepreneur' Thinks Finding a Lawyer Can Be as Easy as Hailing an Uber, July 5, 2018 (accessed July 25, 2018), and
- Community Lawyer: With offerings ranging from portals that help bar associations operate referral services to hosting services that help legal experts encode their knowledge.
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