TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Oct 25, 2022

St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio has welcomed 27 students to its inaugural fully online Juris Doctor program, the first to be accredited by the American Bar Association. The law school also offers a traditional J.D. program and had 791 applicants for its first all-remote cohort. The online program offered admission to 71 applicants, a 9% acceptance rate that falls close to top-ranked Yale Law School. Dean Patricia Roberts said that the program’s large applicant pool “showed us that there is an interest and a need for this.” The ABA in May 2021 granted St. Mary’s permission to offer its fully online degree as a five-year pilot program. That approval came after law schools were quickly forced to switch to remote classes by the COVID-19 pandemic, giving them more experience with distance education.