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#William Mitchell law school first to offer ABA-approved online degrees.

A Minnesota law school will become the first in the country to allow students to earn their degrees largely from home, with the blessing of the American Bar Association.

On Wednesday, William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul plans to announce its new hybrid option: Students will spend only a week or two on campus each semester, and take the rest of their classes online.

It s the first such program at a fully accredited law school. And depending on whom you ask, it s a risky, or a long overdue, venture that could shake up the tradition-bound halls of legal education.

It moves them slightly forward into the 21st century, said Robert Oliphant, a professor emeritus at William Mitchell who supports online teaching. Law schools are about the last institutions in the world to try to change. They re just very stuck in the mud.

The ABA, which accredits 203 law schools nationwide, has imposed strict limits on online classes for the past decade. But this month, for the first time, it approved a pilot project at William Mitchell that will permit students to complete up to half their coursework online.