Law School Discussion

Great catch!

The letter from the Deputy Director actually does say "cannot not". I believe that the first sentence in the paragraph makes it clear that he meant "cannot" regardless of what he actually wrote.

I'll send him another letter to make sure.

Florida Coastal's policy with respect to Americans with non-ABA J.D.s. actually is not so clear.  In one place, the web site describes the LLM program as being for foreign lawyers and in another it describes the LMM program as being for lawyers with degrees from foreign countries (which would include Americans with LLBs from any of the British external programs).
 
Rather than speculate as to the School's policy with respect to Americans with non-ABA J.D.s, I exchanged emails with and spoke directly with an administrator in the program. Although it expects to be asked at at some point, the school has never been asked to decide if it will accept Americans with non-ABA J.D.s.  The administrator with whom I spoke strongly preferred inclusion but emphasized that School had not decided the question. Given that FCSL is a for-profit operation, I suspect that it will decide to allow Americans with non-ABA J.D.s into the LLM program if asked to decide. As noted below, however, admission to the FCSL LLM is the lesser of the problems facing the non-ABA JD seeking admission in DC.

The bigger issue concerns whether the DC Bar will accept the FCSL distance LLM in fulfillment of its 26 hour requirement.  I exchanged letters with the DC Court of Appeals Committee on Admissions and learned that the Commottee interprets literally the rule that the student complete "26 semester hours of study in the subjects tested in the bar examination in a law school that at the time of such study was approved by the American Bar Association". Specifically, the Committee on Admissions requires those 26 hours to be completed while the student is physically present "in" the law school. So much for using the FCSL LLM in DC!

Someone with a non-ABA JD wanting to practice in DC has another option for satisfying the 26 hour requirement. The University of the District of Columbia 's David A. Clarke School of Law offers admission (competitive and the LSAT is required) to 5 non-degree students per semester for no more than 9 credit hours per semester.

Florida Coastal offers an online 26 hour LLM for foreign lawyers that is likely to satisfy the DC requirements. 

The only issue seems to be the 1-hour Intro course.