Emory's Jurist Master Program

Emory University's law school is starting a jurist master program, aimed at professionals in such areas as accounting and tax, architecture, business, diplomacy, energy, engineering, finance, health care, journalism, politics, public health, and the religious ministry, among others.  Cribbing now a little from Emory's description of the program:

Today's professionals cope with growing regulation, intensifying risk and liability concerns and increasingly complex decision environments.  Developing a clearer understanding of law's influence on our individual and institutional decisions has never been more crucial. Regardless of your background, by building your expertise in law with the JM degree, you will be better equipped to deal with these rapidly changing scenarios, by gaining insight into questions such as:

• What laws and regulations apply to my profession?
• What trends in law and regulation should I incorporate into decision-making?
• How does regulatory reform impact my profession, and how can I influence regulatory change?
• How can I assess risk in a changing environment?
• How can I communicate better with my organization’s attorneys?
• Can we get sued for this?  If so, who will win?

Whether you are a working professional interested in gaining a better grounding in law and regulation to advance your career, or a prospective graduate student whose primary degree would be enhanced by an integrated study of law, Emory Law’s Juris Master program offers the insight and flexibility to help you achieve your goals. 

Here's the webpage describing the program and here is a brochure about the program. Students start with several weeks of intensive instruction in US law and then enroll in law school classes, mostly upper-level courses it seems.    The program looks exciting!  I can easily understand how having students from other professional fields would enrich the experience for both law students and teachers.   

There's obviously a trend emerging here in legal education -- master's degrees in law for professionals who want to have additional knowledge of law, but who aren't going to be practicing.  You may recall that Calvin posted about a master's program in health law at Hastings.  

Comments

[Doug Richmond]

I think this innovation has the potential to enrich classroom experiences for law students and professors, but whether these programs have any value otherwise is debatable. I could not in good conscience advise someone in my business unit at my company to seek one of these degrees as compared to earning an MBA, or, for those with an interest in law, pursuing a law degree either full or part-time.

[Archana]

The Global Professional Master of Laws program at the University of Toronto also admits select non-lawyers who are business executives or government officials in fields related to law and regulation.