Master of Arts in Law (MA in Law)

Master of Arts in Law - Program and Registration Procedures

18.1 MA in Law - Academic Program

18.2 MA in Law - Length of Program

1. Course and Program Length
    
   The MA in Law program is a part-time online program. Courses in the MA in Law program are taught over eight weeks. In week 8, instruction ends on the first Monday. Each class meeting begins on Monday and each class meeting other than week 8 ends on Sunday. Exceptions may occur and will be announced by e-mail. Students are cautioned not to make discretionary plans that will prevent them from participating in the online class or completing course assignments.
    
   Each academic year consists of three semesters, each of which has two terms, so that six terms (Fall 1, Fall 2, Spring 1, Spring 2, Summer 1, and Summer 2) per year are offered. Students may begin their studies in the MA in Law program three times each year: Fall 1, Spring 1, and Summer 1. See MA in Law Academic Calendar.
    
   The program is offered as a 30-unit program. The 30-unit program is designed to be completed in 10 terms; with intersessions, most students will complete the program in about 1 year and eight months.
    
   Students must complete all requirements for the MA in Law degree within three years of beginning the program.
    
2. Units per Term
    
   It is anticipated that a student typically will complete one course per term (3 units), and then complete the 3-unit Capstone course during the last semester of enrollment. Subject to availability of courses, students wishing to enroll in more than one course per term should contact the Student Services Coordinator or the Program Manager.
    
3. A student’s program may, of necessity, be required to depart from the above norms in special situations, such as when a student is on probation, is a transfer student, or has interrupted the customary sequence of study for any reason.
    
4. Each student is responsible for planning his or hertheir own program, within the limits of the School’s policies, so as to complete all course and graduation requirements within the time limits stated above. Graduation likely will be delayed for students who do not adhere to the typical sequence of courses. The School has no provisions for partial course credit, so students may find it necessary to complete more than the required units of credit to meet graduation requirements.
    
5. Any deviation from the prescribed program must be approved by the Associate Dean.

18.3 MA in Law - Course Descriptions

Each student may elect up to two concentrations (Business Operations, Entrepreneurship, Emerging Law, or Technology) and, prior to graduation, complete all required courses and sufficient elective “concentration” courses as needed to fulfill program unit requirements.

All courses are letter-graded with the exception of any Directed Study. Note: All courses are offered in irregular rotation, depending in part on student enrollment in each concentration and faculty availability.

Course Descriptions  

18.4 MA in Law - Required Courses

1. The curriculum consists of required courses and elective courses.
2. To graduate, students must complete 12 units of required courses, including each of those listed below, and 18 units of elective courses. The Capstone is designed to be taken as the student’s last course, or within six units of graduation.

MA 506 Foundational Legal Skills  

MA 508 eLawyering   

MA 550 Master of Arts in Law Capstone  

Choose ONE of the following courses:

MA 510 Regulation and Compliance  

MA 512 Data Security and Breach  

MA 500 Privacy Dilemmas 
 

1. Courses are scheduled in a mixed cycle of required and elective courses. Before enrolling in an elective course, MA in Law students must first successfully complete two of the required core courses, Professional Legal Skills and eLawyering. To successfully complete a required course, a student must earn at least a B-. Students seeking an exception to this requirement must petition the Dean or her designee.
    
2. Courses must be taken during the cycle or postponed until offered again. Advisors will inform students of the planned cycle of courses. Postponement likely will delay graduation.
    
3. A student must complete ProfessionalFoundational Legal Skills and eLawyering during their first semester of enrollment. Thereafter the student will complete one course in each subsequent term in which the student is enrolled. The student must complete 18 elective units. If the student chooses a concentration or two, then they must complete 9 units in each chosen concentration.

18.5 MA in Law - Elective Concentration Courses

1. In addition to 12 units of required coursework, students must complete an additional 18 units (6 courses) of elective coursework to graduate. Students who complete 9 units (3 courses) under a particular concentration will, upon graduation, have that concentration designated on their transcript.  If a required course is listed under a concentration, it may be counted toward that concentration.  A course may be counted only once toward a concentration. 
    
2. MA in Law Residency Program (optional)
    During the student’s enrollment, several weekend Innovation Skills Residency courses will be offered during which students will have the opportunity to engage in discussions with faculty and leaders in the legal profession, government, or other fields. Each student may participate in each concentration’s Innovation Skills Residency Weekend once while enrolled, by choosing to enroll in the Innovation Skills Residency course when it is offered. Students may take Innovation Skills Residency courses in concentrations outside of their chosen concentrations.

3. Elective Concentration Courses

Business Operations Concentration Courses

MA 510 Regulation and Compliance 

MA 512 Data Security and Breach  

MA 514 Litigation Operations  

MA 517 Litigation and Its Alternatives  

MA 518 Law Practice Management 

MA 519 Project Management  

Entrepreneurship Concentration Courses

MA 500 Privacy Dilemmas  

MA 512 Data Security and Breach  

MA 520 Introduction to Start-up Law  

MA 522 Building Legal Applications: Document Automations and Expert Systems  

MA 531 Emerging Technology and the Law  

Emerging Law Concentration Courses

MA 510 Regulation and Compliance  

MA 517 Litigation and Its Alternatives   

MA 520 Introduction to Start-up Law   

MA 524 Blockchain, Smart Contracts, and Computational Law   

MA 531 Emerging Technology and the Law   

MA 537 eDiscovery  

Technology Concentration Courses

MA 500 Privacy Dilemmas 

MA 512 Data Security and Breach 

MA 522 Building Legal Applications: Document Automations and Expert Systems 

MA 524 Blockchain, Smart Contracts, and Computational Law 

MA 537 eDiscovery 

MA 540 Technology for Legal Professionals  

18.6 MA in Law - Curriculum Offerings Matrix

Although course offerings are subject to change, subject to enrollment, and faculty availability, below is the matrix of MA in Law courses anticipated to be taught in Academic Years 2022-2024.

18.6a Curriculum Map with Electives

The curriculum map below denotes the degree requirements and elective options available to students matriculating in the 2022 - 2023 academic year. 

18.7 MA in Law - Registration Procedures

1. Prior to the start of each session, continuing students will be notified by JURIS e-mail of information about tuition, fees, class schedules, academic calendar, registration deadlines, and required books by their Student Advisor in COL Student Services. Students are responsible to purchase or otherwise obtain the required books through outside vendors. The Academic Catalog will be available on the Gateway. Syllabi and other course information is found in Canvas, the online Learning Management System.
    
2. Students registering for the first time will be contacted by COL Student Services with information about registration, the Orientation webinar, and passwords for access to Westlaw, the Gateway, and Canvas.
    
3. New students will be provided with a JURIS e-mail account and log-in credentials to the School’s e-learning platform shortly after acceptance to the program and upon payment of the required tuition deposit.
    
4. See Sections 6.2 and 6.3 for policies on adding and dropping courses and the requirement for continuous enrollment.
    
5. Students who do not register for the upcoming session are administratively withdrawn for non-registration and/or non-attendance; procedures for arranging a leave of absence are described in Section 6.2, Leave of Absence.
    
6. Subject to availability of courses, students wishing to enroll in more than one course per term should contact the Student Services Coordinator or Program Manager.

19.0 MA in Law - Grading and Grades

19.1 MA in Law - Letter Grades and Status Designations

1. A letter grading system is used for all courses. Grades are assigned from “A” to “F”, with numerical point equivalents on the School’s 4-point scale:

2. Grade designations denote the following:

3. Other grade/status designations used to indicate a student’s grade or status at the School, and which may appear on the student’s transcript and/or other records, are:

19.2 MA in Law - Calculation of Cumulative GPA

1. The cumulative grade point average (cGPA) is calculated based on course grades.
    
2. To calculate the cGPA, multiply the final grade in each letter-graded course by its unit value, total the sum of the products for all such courses, and divide that sum by the total number of letter-graded units. The cGPA is expressed on the transcript as a number, truncated at the second decimal. For example, the cGPA for a student who had course grades of “B” (3.0 points) in Professional Legal Skills, “A” (4.0) in eLawyering, and “B” (3.0) in Regulation and Compliance is calculated in this manner:

GPA (30.0 points divided by 9 units) = 3.33

Grades earned in subsequent sessions would then be added to the prior grades to determine the student’s cGPA.

19.3 MA in Law - Notification of Grades

Grades are generally not available until very shortly before the start of the next semester/session. Grades will be available online through the password-protected Portal.  Grades will not be released by telephone.

19.4 MA in Law - Petition for Change of Grade

1. Except as otherwise provided in this Catalog, grades will not be changed after approval by the Associate Dean of the MA in Law Program except to correct an arithmetic error or other material mistake by the instructor, such as incorrect calculation of points noted in the margin. An allegation that an instructor has not fairly graded an examination or other paper of the student, or has departed from established policy, is treated as an allegation of material mistake.
    
2. Authority to decide student petitions for change of grade is held by the faculty’s Academic Standards and Admission Committee (ASAC). The ASAC will not authorize a change in any grade without a showing of material mistake by the instructor by clear, convincing, and objectively verifiable evidence; the ASAC will not permit or require a change of any grading decision by an instructor which represents qualitative judgment concerning a student’s performance. Objectively verifiable evidence is not shown by a student’s belief that the analysis deserved a higher grade.
    
3. A student is not permitted to lobby an instructor for a change of grade. A student who has identified a potential material mistake may ask the instructor to review the claimed error. At the instructor’s election, the instructor may require the student to submit a written analysis of the claimed error or to present the analysis to the instructor.
    
4. A student who wishes to appeal a grade must do so by timely filing a written petition for grade change to the ASAC. All such petitions must: 1) be filed with the Registrar within 14 calendar days of the date the original grade was posted; 2) state clearly, specifically, and fully the basis for the claim of material mistake; 3) provide clear, convincing, and objectively verifiable evidence of the claimed mistake; and 4) include a copy of any written analysis submitted to the instructor.
    
5. Decisions on petitions to the ASAC are made pursuant to the procedures and standards set forth in the Charter for the Academic Standards and Admissions Committee of The Santa Barbara & Ventura Colleges of Law (“the Charter”), a copy of which is available on the Gateway (My.CollegesofLaw.edu/).

19.5 MA in Law - Repetition of Courses

1. Students must make satisfactory academic progress toward the MA in Law degree by maintaining a grade point average of 2.7 on a scale of 4.0. Course grades below C do not count toward graduation requirements. A student who receives a course grade below B- in a required course must retake the course.  If a student receives a grade below C in an elective course, the student will not receive credit towards the degree and must retake the same or another elective course.
    
2. In addition:
   1. When a course is successfully retaken, the more recent of the two grades will be computed in the cumulative grade point average; the points for the less recent grade will not be computed in the student’s GPA.
   2. The original grade will remain on the student’s transcript, along with the grade received for the retaken course.

20.0 MA in Law - Graduation