Law and SBS College Leaders Discuss Launch of Nation's First Undergraduate Law Degree

Law and SBS College Leaders Discuss Launch of Nation's First Undergraduate Law Degree

By University Relations - Communications
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The new degree is the product of a partnership between the James E. Rogers College of Law and the School of Government and Public Policy in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
The new degree is the product of a partnership between the James E. Rogers College of Law and the School of Government and Public Policy in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

This fall, the UA will launch the nation's first Bachelor of Arts in Law degree program.

The program is designed to prepare undergraduates to fill jobs in which a strong knowledge of law is beneficial, such as corporate compliance, business management and other fields. The new degree is the product of a partnership between the James E. Rogers College of Law and the School of Government and Public Policy in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. (Read more about the program in this UANews story.)

John Paul Jones III, dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Brent White, associate dean College of Law, talked with Lo Que Pasa about the new degree and what impacts it will have for the UA.

Why make a degree in law available to undergraduate students?

Jones: An undergraduate degree in law provides an accessible and cost-effective route to legal training for the vast array of careers in which knowledge of the law is necessary, but for which it is not necessary to be a lawyer. Undergraduate training in law will also serve society by creating a more legal-literate citizenry workforce and by opening careers in areas of substantial regulation and where there are opportunities for nonlawyers to cost-effectively deliver new services.

White: It's responding to structural changes in the legal profession where more and more legal work is done by lawyers, and also where nonlawyers have to deal more with legal issues. It's addressing the reality that there's a need for legal education that goes beyond those who might become lawyers. It's really about, in my view, the democratization of legal education and providing access to legal education to populations who need it and to whom it hasn't been available.

What are the benefits for the University?

Jones: In addition to augmenting the breadth of offerings in the School of Government and Public Policy, the new bachelor's degree opens up a number of possibilities for enhanced undergraduate training in fields that touch on law. We can expect double majors in law and a host of majors within and beyond the school in fields pertaining to business, science, engineering and the other social sciences.

White: There are lots of double major possibilities for students. I can think of any number of combinations – environmental science and law, psychology and law, public health and law – and I think this should be a destination law degree for the UA and a reason for students to come to Arizona. This is the first and only Bachelor of Arts in Law in the country. I think that's certainly an advantage to the University.

How has the partnership been between the James E. Rogers College of Law and the School of Public Policy?

Jones: The School of Government and Public Policy has taken a leadership role in a number of the most important initiatives to come out of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences since the merger of Public Administration and Political Science created the school in 2009. Among these have been a new online master's degree in international security and a new bachelor's degree in criminal justice, and now this innovative new bachelor's degree in law. We could not have produced this degree without the collaborative instincts of both the College of Law and the leadership in the School of Government and Public Policy. And even at a place like the UA, where interdisciplinarity and collaboration is the norm, it's unusual in how quickly it came together.

White: It's already been a great partnership. The whole process of coming together and thinking about how we would structure this has been a great discussion. I think there's a logical and clear connection between law and the School of Government and Public Policy. It's making real what should be a collaboration across the two schools.

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