UK Law School Plants Flag in US, Partners with Northwestern; Grads to Take NY Bar
A United Kingdom law school is establishing a program in the United States, where its students will be able to sit for the New York bar exam.
The College of Law students will be able to take classes at Northwestern University School of Law as part of a new strategic partnership and, after completing the equivalent of a master’s degree, sit for the New York bar exam, Legal Week reports.
“The qualification will be broadly equivalent to a U.S. LLM and will allow our graduates the choice to qualify in both U.K. and U.S. law,” chief executive Nigel Savage of the College of Law tells the publication.
“The program will also attract the very best overseas students to the college,” Savage continues, “helping to sustain London as a legal services and legal education hub.”
The actual degree that the students will receive under the new international program, however, will be a juris doctorate from the United Kingdom school, James Lupo tells the ABA Journal. He is a Northwestern Law associate dean for academic affairs.
While the partnership has been agreed upon, he says, details are still being worked out, including where Northwestern’s law faculty will teach the College of Law students.
“We have a proposal that’s gone to the College of Law setting out the way we would be able to contribute to the program’s third year,” says Lupo, but what, exactly, the program will look like is still under discussion.
Students will be able to begin pursuing the new College of Law degree beginning in September. A College of Law press release provides additional details, noting that the program is still under development.
Although a number of states require bar exam applicants to have graduated from an American Bar Association-accredited law school with a juris doctor degree, New York permits foreign lawyers who have earned a master’s degree from a U.S. law school to take the bar there.
It appears that any special permission required for the new College of Law program graduates to take the New York bar has been granted; Legal Week reports that the New York State Court of Appeals and the New York State Board of Law Examiners have OK’d the plan.
Hat tip: Above the Law.
Updated on March 16 to include comments from James Lupo.
