The College of Law has a new online undergraduate degree program for the fall that will provide more legal background for students interested in non-lawyer legal careers.
The Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies is an option for students who want to possibly become paralegals, legal assistants, social workers, entrepreneurs and more, according to Paul Berman, dean of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.
“The law school should be a multi-faceted legal studies center,” Berman said.
He said students can learn about legal institutions and discourse of law.
Berman added that only incoming freshmen can pursue the online degree, since the new program needs time to develop, although there was a lot of interest in the program.
“The provost informed me that they received a large number of inquiries about such a program,” he said.
The new online degree program is one of many goals the dean has set out to accomplish for the undergraduate College of Law since his start last fall.
“We are in the process of transforming the law school … to create a new model for the 21st Century,” Berman said.
He said he believes there should be an undergraduate law degree, something he hopes to roll out over the next couple of years,
“It is an odd quirk of history that law students … do not have an undergraduate division,” Berman said. “To me, that’s wrong.”
In spring 2010, there will be a joint business and law undergraduate degree, specifically a Bachelor of Arts in Business with a concentration in law, he said.
Doug Sylvester, associate dean for Faculty Research and Development, said this degree will probably have some demand by employers.
“We’re going to need people with a lot of areas of expertise,” Sylvester said.
He said the degree touches on many different areas of law.
“This is a good introduction to all those different topics,” Sylvester said.
Leslie Mamaghani, assistant dean of Educational Programs, said that the degree was created in June, so the enrollment levels will probably be low.
“Most students that are freshmen … aren’t looking in June or July,” Mamaghani said.
Corie Rosen, director of the Academic Support Program, is teaching The Structure and Methodology of the American Legal System in the fall.
“The goal of the course is to orient new students to the law and the legal system,” Rosen said.
She said the online program gives people more access to the legal system and is more flexible.
“I thought it was a really exciting opportunity to engage with young people who are coming to study and think about law for the first time,” Rosen said.
Reach the reporter at reweaver@asu.edu
