World's Only Online Law School Proving Its Mettle

LOS ANGELES, CA, August 8, 2002 - With the graduation of its inaugural class on the horizon, Concord University School of Law, the world's first and only wholly Internet law school, is rising to the occasion with escalating enrollment and solid performance. Less than four years after opening its virtual doors, Concord has become the second largest part-time law school in the country, based on the size of the first-year entering class, and is proving to be a viable model in creating access to a legal education for students worldwide via the Internet:

Phenomenal Growth in Four Years

Concord has grown from 33 students to more than 1000 students today enrolled in Concord's Juris Doctor, Executive Juris Doctor sm, and LL.M. in Health Law programs.
The faculty has grown from six faculty members at Concord's launch in 1998 to more than 60 legal academics and practitioners.
Attracting and Developing Top Quality Students and Faculty
More than 42% of Concord's current students already hold one or more advanced degrees, including 67 MDs, 33 Ph.D.s and 23 CPAs.
Concord students have excelled on the notoriously difficult First Year Law Students Examination, given in California, with a pass rate of nearly 50% compared to the statewide first time takers pass rate of 30%.
Faculty is comprised of law school deans and professors, judges, litigators and academics. Supplementary and visiting lecturers include Harvard Law School professor Arthur Miller, criminal law expert Rafael Guzman and John E. Moye, current president of the Colorado State Bar.
Many of the faculty are former or currently active practicing attorneys or hold academic posts. Other professional endeavors among current faculty include publishing legal treatises, serving as bench officers in civil or criminal matters, working on new legislation, chairing various ethics and technology committees or developing new accreditation guidelines for online education.
Current student internships include placements in a state District Attorney's office, a Small Claims Court Advisor program, a circuit court judge's office and a private attorney's office.
Creating Access For A Diverse Student and Faculty Population
Students now hail from all 50 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, and 13 other countries worldwide including Spain, Bahrain, Korea, Belgium, Kazahstan, Japan, England and U.S. territories Puerto Rico and Guam.
The student body includes CEOs, physicians, bankers, real estate developers, engineers, pilots, police officers, retired and active military officers, city officials, nurses, compliance analysts, dentists, consultants, sales representatives, accountants, small business owners and entrepreneurs, stay-at-home parents and family caregivers.
Faculty currently teach from 21 different states and are admitted to practice law in 24 different jurisdictions.
Expanding Curriculum With Unique Programs and Specialized Practice Areas
L.L.M. in Health Law: Provides attorneys and recent graduates access to practice-oriented specialty courses in dynamic field of practice, including e-health and telemedicine, health care regulation, health care organization and finance.
Online Trial Advocacy program: An online course that teaches the fundamentals of the courtroom and oral advocacy - such as opening statements, direct and cross examinations, jury selection, introduction of evidence - and provides the opportunity for students to develop their skills through practice. The curriculum focuses on trial tactics & techniques and requires that students perform about 150 minutes of trial technique demonstrations and submit videotapes for critique and assessment.
Legal Education Experience Program (LEEP): A nationwide clinical/internship program designed to provide hands-on legal experience.
Legal Analysis and Writing (LAW) course: Intensive course focused on learning and developing skills in fact analysis, issues identification and essay and brief writing; includes a Moot Court component.
Gaining Credibility Among Media and Legal Industry
"…Concord's existence has already significantly impacted the [traditional legal] academy. There is no doubt that legal institutions will eventually, and in ways probably not always apparent, adopt much of Concord's technology and apply it in some form to traditional law school teaching. One can hope that somewhere, in the not too distant future, Concord will be recognized as a major force that caused traditional law school teaching methods and offerings to be changed to reflect the digital age." - William Mitchell Law Review
"Already, other universities have called Concord looking for advice on how to adapt its Internet-based strategies to the needs of schools with brick-and-mortar facilities…the ABA may be forced to develop ways to measure the value of on-line education, not by the blue-blood perspective of law schools of the past, but by [Concord Dean Jack] Goetz's more utilitarian approach, looking - a decade from now - at the achievements of Concord's graduates and their ability to practice law." - University Business
"Concord's high retention rate and its innovative learning tools are drawing increased attention and positioning the school as a model distance learning program. Developers and instructors of online training sessions would be wise to emulate this learner-focused approach." - Training Magazine
"[The Concord model] does have profound potential. If we are not actively working to take part in it, then we will get run over by it." -- Henry H. Perritt Jr., dean of Chicago-Kent College of Law, in ABA Journal.
"Clearly, [the distance learning model] is something we're going to have to face." - Nancy Slonim, spokeswoman for the American Bar Association, in Legal Times

About Concord Law School:
Concord (www.concordlawschool.com) has been authorized to award the Juris Doctor degree by the California Bureau of Private Post-Secondary and Vocational Education and has complied with the registration requirements of the State Bar of California, which permits its graduates to apply for admission to the California Bar. Additionally, Concord is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). The DETC Accrediting Commission is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a nationally recognized accrediting agency and is a recognized member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). The Concord Law Center provides an online Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Health Law program to law graduates and attorneys. Concord is part of Kaplan Higher Education (www.kaplancollege.edu), a group of institutions that offer fixed facility and online certificate and degree programs in fields such as healthcare, business, information technology and legal studies. Each of the individual schools is separately accredited by one of several national or regional accrediting agencies approved by the U.S. Department of Education. Kaplan, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).

Press Contact:

Carina Wong
Tel: 212-492-5992
carina_wong@kaplan.com

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