Attending a Part-Time Law Program

• Part-time law school programs enable working professionals to balance a career and family with evening and, sometimes, weekend courses. Students in part-time law programs typically take about 10 credit hours each semester, sometimes attending summer school, as well. Working students, provided that they do not take additional credit hours, may work as many hours as they would like to each semester. It usually takes a part-time student four to five years to earn a JD.
  
  

American Bar Association Approved Law Schools

• The American Bar Association, or ABA, provides law school accreditation among its services. It takes years for a law school to undergo the accreditation process, which includes ABA-determined criteria, periodic reviews and site evaluations. As of July 2011, there is one provisionally ABA-approved -- and 19 fully ABA-approved law schools in California. These schools typically offer both day and evening programs, allowing students to transfer from full- to part-time or part- to full-time, as their work schedules permit.
  
  

California State Accredited Law Schools

• For law schools that fail to achieve ABA approval, California has its own system for accreditation; the accrediting body is the California Committee of Bar Examiners. Graduates of these state-accredited schools can sit for the bar upon completion of their degrees, but generally only in California. As of April 2010, there were 18 state-accredited law schools in California. These state-accredited schools offer almost exclusively four-year, part-time, evening law programs, with no opportunity to transfer into a full-time day program. Since the programs are part-time, tuition is usually assessed at per-credit rates, rather than by the semester or year.
  
  

Unaccredited Law Schools

• California law schools that have neither ABA-approval nor state-accreditation may still register with the California Committee of Bar Examiners. Graduates from these school may sit for the bar in California. As of April 2010, there were seven correspondence schools, five distance-learning schools, and 16 fixed-facility unaccredited schools in California. These schools offer part-time law programs on, typically, very flexible academic schedules. Some schools even allow students to enter their programs at various points throughout the year.