FAQ

St. Francis has an impeccable reputation among California’s law schools. We were the first operational, non-profit distance learning law school.

Our law classes are online, in real-time, and utilize a low student-faculty ratio. What’s beneficial about a low student-faculty ratio? Students receive more tailored instruction and personal attention. Our program fosters more dynamic interactions among students, too. In fact, vigorous live class discussions are the norm, involving most students in the class. For comparison, an ABA-approved law school might have 50 or more students, where a similar St. Francis class has 15. The highly-accomplished student population creates an educational atmosphere that welcomes contrasting points of view and solicits a deeper understanding of legal issues.

Graduates of St. Francis also know how to practice law. Each transcript will show the graduate completed as many as two dozen quarter units in practical skills training, ranging from arguing a sentencing motion to drafting and arguing an appellate brief. Depending on electives, graduates may also negotiate and draft commercial contracts, prepare a complaint and answer interrogatories, write points and authorities for a brief, or complete an arbitration. Education at St. Francis is about making graduates practice ready in common areas of today’s law practice.

Further, each student has access to the most advanced technology in our state-of-the-art online classrooms. We use industry-standard learning tools and following the emerging best practices of online legal education.

We are proud of our laser focus on academic excellence and teamwork. Toward that end, students interact with our Director of Academic Affairs throughout their time at St. Francis, helping to assure academic success in our innovative, online world. The excellent curriculum — combined with hands-on exercises — gives students the capability to disentangle complicated client problems.

We’re proud to be an uncommonly rigorous online program with top-rated faculty and students with years of real-world, in-the-field experience. Our graduates exemplify the best and the brightest of their generation of law students.

St. Francis is designed for, and serves, busy adults who want or need to study part time. St. Francis awards its graduates a JD degree in as little as four years of rigorous part-time study. The four-year program allows students to continue working in their current careers while they study law. St. Francis requires 133 quarter credits of instruction in the essential courses taught at all law schools, including torts, contracts, criminal law, constitutional law, property law, civil procedure, evidence, business associations, community property, trusts, wills, and remedies, electives, and practical skills.

We offer several elective courses to round out a student’s law school career. Electives are offered in disciplines such as administrative law, litigation skills like discovery, contract drafting, alternative dispute resolution, and employment law.

Our online classes meet twice a week. Our fall first-year students concentrate on torts for their first 18 weeks. In the winter quarter, students move on to study criminal law for 8 weeks, and starting in the spring session, the in-depth study of Contracts for 18 weeks. The cycle is similar for our spring first-year students, who begin with Contracts.

Things are different for our upperclassmen. Our upper-level students enjoy a rotating schedule where professional skills alternate with core courses and electives. Every student’s class schedule varies. Many of the upper-level classes have practical skill exercises. Students may conduct the arbitration in a car accident case offered by the alternative dispute resolution courses. Or, students may draft a client partnership agreement in the business associations class. Many law schools teach the same doctrinal law classes, but most do not offer practical skills exercises to the degree that we do. And our students appreciate that difference.

Going to law school is not for everyone.  In the words of one faculty member, the study of law generally requires “talent, intellectual curiosity and commitment.” But our online JD program is worth it, according to St. Francis graduates. Our courses require a personal commitment of 3-4 hours of classes every week in the evenings. That’s just the in-class sessions led by faculty. The rigorous curriculum requires hours of reading and study outside of the classroom, just like any law school, and hours of practice training, unlike many schools.

Our law curriculum is more demanding than online study programs in other disciplines. Some of those are — reportedly — easier than offline study. In contrast, it’s been said that our online JD program is more rigorous than many brick-and-mortar law school programs.

Our students say that St. Francis’s online law study is worth it because it gives them the unbeatable combination of practical professional skills alongside their doctrinal studies. Our students also prove that the rigorous study prepares them well for the tough California exams. Our students’ and graduates’ pass rates on the California First Year Law Students Exam and General Bar Exam prove it works. St. Francis has small numbers, but sometimes the St. Francis pass rate is nearly double the pass rate for some other law schools.