Crazy law school Idea

Clm

So here me out before you bash me. I have been going back and forward on the idea of law school and these are my restraints first I only have two schools in my state and both are higher tier schools so they are harder to get into 5000+ applicants a year and they only accept a few hundred. Second I don't want 100k in student loans after i graduate. Third I don't want to move states( I just recently purchased my dream house) I don't want to be a day to day lawyer but the study of law just blows my mind. In my spare time I do a lot of legal research for volunteer organizations that im apart of. Has anyone run into anyone who went to law school online i know its possible to go to the California and DC Bar. and my state would allow me to be a Pro Bono Lawyer. My end goal is to CIO,CISO something up the road. Do you think it would be worth while to do a Online JD?

papadoc

99% of CIOs/CISO's don't have a law degree. I was a CISO for a number of years and within the metro NY/NJ/CT area and all my networking events/forums, I never ran into one that had a JD. Just wanted to put that out there since you ended your post with that. A JD would actually be more promising in helping to take you another direction into becoming a CPO - Chief Privacy Officer or CCO - Chief Compliance Officer. Like yourself, I am deeply involved in legal and privacy research as one of the functions of my position. I also spent 3 years studying communications law at a university and always considered going for a JD. The problem is that the ABA is so behind the times that there are very very few ABA accredited online programs. Which means you can't sit for the exam in your home state. If you can find one that is ABA accredited for online, I say heck yeah go for it.

Danielm7

Agree with papadoc, if your long term goal is CIO/CISO a law degree is 100% unnecessary. Like anything else, the knowledge might be useful here and there but it's gross overkill if you plan on staying in IT.

kiki162

It's not a crazy idea. I've spent sometime working around young lawyers and law school students. Those kids do work hard, and I've seen a lot of them dabble with the IT field during that time. Unless you have a specific goal in mind like say working for the Judicial Branch or US Attorneys Office, being an attorney and having IT experience you could certain get a C-level type of position and work in IT. With your resume, and as much experience as you have, I think law school may not be useful if your not willing to devote more time as an attorney.

It sounds to me that you love the research side of IT more than going through law school. If I were you, I'd look at other ways to invest that money that will be more worthwhile. Since you are looking to get into a CIO/CISO role, I would look at SANS and/or ISACA for training and certifications. SANS does have a several management and law-based courses that you can take.

I think your best bet would be to get into a good online Master's program instead, as that will serve you better over the long term.

jeremywatts2005

More beneficial would be an executive JD. Which has topics that are interrelated to business and other facets of technology. There are a few colleges offering them. Now I could see that helping you with a CIO or CISO area especially if the company you were working for did digital forensics or incident response and there was a large group of them.