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Ohio Supreme Court Approves “3+3” Law Degree
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: July 10, 2014
The Ohio Supreme Court approved a proposal from Ohio’s law school deans to allow the so-called “3 Plus 3” combination undergraduate/ law school degree.
The new rule comprises amendments to Rule I of the Supreme Court Rules for the Government of the Bar of Ohio, and will act to allow candidates to sit for the Ohio bar examination without necessarily receiving a four-year undergraduate degree before entering law school.
“There are numerous ways that this new rule can be very positive for a lot of students,” said Elizabeth A. Reilly, former interim dean of The University of Akron School of Law.
In passing these amendments, Ohio now has become the final state to allow this kind of program.
According to Alan C. Michaels, dean of The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, the 3+3 programs have to do with receiving undergraduate credit for classes taken in law school, so that those credits count toward both the law degree and the undergraduate degree, creating a joint baccalaureate-law degree.
Michaels headed the committee of Ohio law school deans that first recommended that Ohio allow 3+3 programs to the Supreme Court.
The actual language in the amendment to Rule 1 comes in Section 1 (B), which now only requires that a candidate for the bar, “have earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.” Prior language stated that the candidate had to receive that undergraduate degree prior to entering law school.
The new rule took effect July 1, 2014.
In a letter to all Ohio university presidents and law school deans, the Supreme Court recently alerted those officials of this rule change, and also stated that any such programs are up to each school to develop.
Reilly said that Akron is actively looking at developing 3+3 programs.
The 3+3 joint degree can be in conjunction between any law school and any undergraduate school, said Reilly. While the most obvious pairing for her school may be something like a joint 3+3 between Akron Law and the political science department at Akron, which they are exploring, Reilly said that the law school, “is also looking to partner with other colleges and universities in the area.”
Those other schools could, for instance, include the colleges of Stark County, she said, as well as Kent State University.
“It gives us an opportunity to build a name in interdisciplinary studies,” she said, noting that these programs can fit into the areas that the law school emphasizes, like health and intellectual property. For instance, a student could receive an undergraduate degree in computer science and then come to the law school looking to take IP classes.
One part of the rule left intact is the requirement that a bar candidate must be 21 to sit for the exam. This brings up an intriguing area of discussion, Reilly said.
“There are lots of students who coming to college with AP and post-secondary credits,” she said, noting that some advanced students can skip as much as a year or more of college because they have earned undergraduate credit in high school.
While this could mean that a student could earn an undergraduate degree in two actual years on campus, Reilly noted that one of the 3+3 requirements is that the student be on campus (as the program label implies).
As a practical matter, students, she said, “have to have a major. They have to take a lot of classes in their major once they get to college, and they can use those pre-earned credits as a way to focus on their major. But they have to be on campus,” she added. “There won’t be any high school-to-law school.”
The Supreme Court, said Reilly, “is very interested in the issue of (providing students) a well-rounded education. Well-educated individuals are more likely to make good lawyers, because the practice of law is so diverse culturally and intellectually.”
These new programs are opening up new discussions all over the place, both inside the university and with other institutions, said Reilly. “We are looking at what opportunities there might be for students. We are going to keep exploring. There are a lot of ways that this can be very positive for a lot of different kinds of students.”
The amended rule, Reilly said, “emphasizes creating well-rounded undergraduate students. It will be great for students, once they know they want to go to law school, to have this opportunity.”