CONCORD LAW SCHOOL GRADUATES ITS LARGEST CLASS IN SCHOOL’S HISTORY

Event Marks the Beginning of Concord’s 10^th Anniversary Year

Los Angeles, CA, March 4, 2008—Concord Law School of Kaplan University, a pioneer in online legal education, celebrated the graduation of 184 students on Saturday, March 1, at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.  The graduating class, the largest in the school’s 10-year history, included 134 graduates of the Juris Doctor program and 50 graduates who earned an Executive Juris Doctor degree. 

“Concord Law School, the nation’s first fully online law school, has helped define the future of legal education by making it accessible and affordable for working professionals seeking to attain a Juris Doctor degree,” said Dean Barry Currier, J.D., Concord’s President and Dean. “Over the last 10 years, Concord has provided students with an opportunity to get a rigorous legal education without many of the opportunity costs associated with campus-based programs. In the years ahead, we will continue to foster innovative online teaching tools to help students advance in their current career or pursue new ones in the legal profession.”

Nearly half of this graduating class entered Concord with one or more graduate degrees, including 23 MBA, 38 master’s, six Ph.D., four MPA and eight MD degrees. They are accomplished professionals, including a Nippon Steel IT executive and Wharton MBA who traveled from Japan to California to sit for the February Bar Exam; a warrant officer who managed to complete his degree after being deployed to Iraq last fall; and one of the youngest “top executives in Minneapolis” according to the Minneapolis Business Journal.

Many Concord graduates will combine their extensive academic and professional experience with their law degree to augment accomplished careers or pursue new opportunities, including:

• Doctors who have seen the impact of changing government regulations and managed care on their profession and hope to have an impact on health care policy;
• Federal government employees at the  National Science Foundation, the Food and Drug Administration, the USDA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who will use their legal education as they oversee climate change programs, conservation compliance and other regulatory programs; and
• A long-time radio producer who plans to move into entertainment law as the radio business becomes more consolidated.

John E. Moye, the founding partner of Moye White LLP, served as the graduation speaker. A notable attorney in Colorado, Moye is also a businessman, professor, lecturer and writer. He has earned a reputation as an expert on professional ethics and responsibility during his more than 30 years in the legal field.  Most notably, he helped form the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver in 2006. Moye also serves as a visiting lecturer and professor at Concord.

Following the Saturday commencement, several Concord graduates took the State Bar of California attorney’s oath of admission.  Concord alumnus Floyd Chapman, the first online law school graduate ever to serve on the Committee of Bar Examiners, moved for their admission to practice law in California.

Concord Law School was founded in 1998 as the nation’s first wholly online law school and today has 1,500 students across the country. Since Concord’s first graduating class in November 2002, more than 600 students have completed the JD and EJD programs. The formal merger of Concord into Kaplan University in the fall of 2007 made Concord the first online law school to be part of a regionally accredited institution of higher education. Kaplan University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.  Concord is also accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council, a nationally recognized accrediting agency. Additionally, Concord is an institutional member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the International Association of Law Schools.

For more information about Concord Law School of Kaplan University, visit info.concordlawschool.edu.

About Kaplan Higher Education

Concord Law School of Kaplan University is part of Kaplan Higher Education, which serves 80,000 students through 70 campus-based schools across the United States and in Europe. It also offers online high school programs through Kaplan Virtual Education, and undergraduate and graduate programs through Kaplan University. Kaplan Higher Education schools offer a spectrum of academic opportunities, from high school diplomas to graduate and professional degrees, including a Juris Doctor degree. Kaplan Higher Education is part of Kaplan, Inc., a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).  For more information, visit www.kaplan.com.

Press contacts:   

Holly Barnhill

holly_barnhill@concord.kaplan.edu

(310) 689-3216

Michele Snipe

msnipe@kaplan.edu

(312) 706-6006

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