A correspondence law school is a school that offers legal education by distance education, either by correspondence or online by use of the internet, or a combination thereof.
China
Distance legal education in China is available through Beijing Foreign Studies University through a partnership with Spirit of Law School of Law. There are three courses available: Certificate, Diploma and LLM (Masters of Law) in International and Chinese Law. These are in English and aimed at international law and non-law professionals. These are officially awarded by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China.
Germany
Distance legal education in Germany is available through FernUniversität Hagen, a public university similar to the British Open University. The graduates receive LLB or LLM degrees. Specialized LLB degrees in business law are available through five universities of applied sciences: Hamburger Fernhochschule, Fachhochschule Nordhessen, Europäische Fernhochschule Hamburg, Fachhochschule Südwestfalen, and Hochschule Niederrhein.
South Africa
Distance legal education is an acceptable method to become a lawyer in South Africa, and is available through the University of South Africa (UNISA).
United Kingdom
Distance legal education in the United Kingdom is accepted by the Law Society of England and Wales as a qualifying law degree and one of the possible ways to become a solicitor or a barrister. Several institutions offer basic legal education (leading to the LLB degree), the oldest of which is the University of London External System. Numerous universities in the UK offer LLB degrees through distance education today, including the Open University.
In several other countries influenced by the British legal heritage, legal education can be obtained through distance education, including South Africa (through UNISA) and Australia.
United States
The only state that offers an ability to practice law via successful completion of a mandated 4 years of law school through either a correspondence or online law school is California. Once a law student has successfully completed their first year of law school, Business and Professions Code section 6060 requires the student to take and pass the First Year Law Student Examination, commonly known as the "BABY BAR," within the first three attempts of becoming eligible. If student fails to do so, all law school education beyond year one will be ignored by the state, the student must pass this exam before becoming a lawyer if they have obtained their entire degree online, or by correspondence law school. In the United States, non-ABA approved law schools and online/correspondence schools have lower bar passage rates than ABA-approved and traditional brick and mortar law schools.
History
Early years
Law school study by correspondence has existed in the United States since 1890 when Sprague Correspondence School of Law (which eventually merged with Blackstone Institute, and later was known as Blackstone School of Law) was established by William C. Sprague in Detroit, Michigan. Among the school’s early graduates was Antoinette D. Leach, early Sprague Law Correspondence Law School graduate and first woman attorney in Indiana, who in 1893 became the first woman admitted by the Indiana Supreme Court to practice law in Indiana. Later, in 1908, La Salle Extension University was founded in Chicago by Jesse Grant Chapline. It operated until 1982. Those schools and others (including American Correspondence School of Law of Chicago; Columbian Correspondence College of Law in Washington D.C.; New York Correspondence School of Law in New York; and others) were innovative for the time in providing many poor, working-class, women, and ethnic minorities educational opportunities. Among the La Salle Extension University graduates who went on to make contributions in law and politics are governors Harold J. Arthur and Eurith D. Rivers, Senator Craig L. Thomas, U.S. Representatives John S. Gibson and William T. Granahan, and African-American leaders Arthur Fletcher, Jessie M. Rattley, and Gertrude Rush.
Present day
Northwestern California University School of Law is the oldest existing correspondence law school in the United States. It was founded in 1982 and began presenting its correspondence program entirely online in 2002. It is the first online law school to offer Internet based and faculty led videoconferencing sessions for students for some courses.