How Texas A&M Law master’s program became one of nation’s most robust
July 21,2024
See full Fort Worth Report article by Shomial Ahmad here.
It’s part of Texas A&M University School of Law’s story to rise up in the ranks and expand. In the past five years, the school’s Master of Legal Studies’ enrollment increased by more than tenfold. There were around 100 students in 2019. Now, there are 1,100, making it one of the top master’s programs in terms of enrollment nationwide, according to the law school.
Most of the students in the program are working professionals who learn online about the legal terrain surrounding industries that deal with a lot of regulation, compliance and contracting. Think: oil and gas, real estate and health care.
“What does the hospital administrator or a nurse who’s leading a team need to know about data privacy or health information? What do they need to know about billing and coding? What do they need to read?” said David Dye, the assistant dean of graduate programs at the law school. “There’s complex legal rules on a lot of this.”
The Master of Legal Studies program is one of the ways that the law school is setting itself apart and expanding its national prominence.
Since the school joined the Texas A&M University System in 2013 upon the sale of Texas Wesleyan’s law school, it’s gone from the unknown depths of the unranked to become a top 30 law school in the nation and number two in the state. While the legal studies program doesn’t figure into rankings, the graduate degree helps the school fill both an industry need and the university’s overall mission.
“I always say A&M takes its land grant mission seriously,” said Robert Ahdieh, dean of the law school. “In the university, the law school, other colleges and schools are constantly asking the question,‘What can we do to meet the needs of every Texan every day?’”
The law school conducted a market analysis to figure out what study would be most useful, resulting in the development of courses in more than a dozen specialized tracks, from human resources to wealth management. The online master’s program is self-paced but typically takes around two years to complete. Tuition, regardless of residency status, for the entire program is around $35,000.
The school isn’t heading into uncharted territory. Some law schools have had a Master of Legal Studies program for decades, but they were limited in scope.
At the time of the Great Recession in 2008-09, when law schools were hit with declining enrollment, many schools created or expanded these master’s programs. The program fits with the university’s vision for the law school’s physical expansion into Texas A&M Fort Worth, a 3.5-acre campus in downtown set to include spaces for collaboration between the college and local companies.
“We’ve got to be responsive,” said Ahdieh, referring to how curriculum must evolve in order to be relevant for working professionals. “Because at the level of specialization, the world changes much more quickly than at the level of this is what the law is.”
Paula deWitte, who has a doctorate in computer science and a law degree, teaches in the Cybersecurity, Law and Policy track. She worked at research, technology and logistics companies and she knows firsthand there is a need for this kind of legal training.
“We don’t need (students) to ‘think like a lawyer.’ If you want to think like a lawyer, go to law school,” said deWitte, an adjunct professor at the law school who also teaches in the computer science and engineering department at the university’s main campus in College Station. “We want them to understand the impact of regulations and laws and how they impact (the company). How (the company) has to protect itself.”
For instance, deWitte said, if a cyberattack happens, her students need to know how to prepare and respond from all kinds of angles, from protecting hacking victims to complying with reporting requirements and timelines.
Graduates say they’ve gained confidence when communicating with attorneys and dealing with contracts and other complex business matters. It’s helped Mackenzie Siffrinn, a 2024 graduate, get a promotion.
While she was taking classes, Siffrinn moved up two levels, from an associate information analyst to an information security analyst.
Before taking the classes, Siffrinn, who has a bachelor’s in computer science, would get technical documents and understand them immediately. But when legal docs came, she would end up turning to Google and only gain a patchwork understanding of what she needed to do next.
“Now it helps so much to be able to read some of these documents and really understand what they mean and truly understand the consequences,” Siffrinn said.
She’s now fluent in tech and legal speak. In her professional world, she’s able to connect the dots.
Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus. Contact her at shomial.ahmad@fortworthreport.org.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Location Mentioned: Texas A&M University School of Law