Costco really does open a law school....

Rita: "We've been walking forever. You sure you know where you're going?" Frito: "Yeah, I know this place pretty good. I went to law school here." Joe: "In Costco?" Frito: "Yeah, I couldn't believe it myself. Luckily, my dad was an alumnus and pulled some strings." http://www.hark.com/clips/sjvgwzzrcr-went-to-law-school-there

In all seriousness, in view of recent controversies about for-profit higher education including law schools http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/09/the-law-school-scam/375069/ what if Costco really did start its own law school?
 
Assuming the general spirit of the question is "Just how lowbrow could law schools get?"...

I think there was a time in the US, at least, when you didn't need to go to a university to be a lawyer, you just had to take classes, some of them offered at "night schools", and then write whatever government and/or guild exams were reuqired for entry into the profession.

I don't know much about that history, but I do vaguely recall reading bios of lawyers(outside the US as well) where they said "While working as a janitor, he took law-courses at night school and blah blah blah". Mind you, I'm not sure if those night schools qualified as just tutorial bins, community colleges, or what.

In any case, you probably couldn't revert back to non-univeristy law schools any time soon, so a Costco run institution is ASB. But there are still private totors for the LSAT and whatnot, so I guess Costco could open one of those, and their students would have to bear the brunt of late-night comedians jokes.
 
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American law schools are already overproducing lawyers at a high rate meaning every year there are more law graduate schools than there are jobs and will not get better because young adults continue to go to law school in part based on the myth that a law degree is a ticket to big money. This only makes it worse...
 
Assuming the general spirit of the question is "Just how lowbrow could law schools get?"...

I think there was a time in the US, at least, when you didn't need to go to a university to be a lawyer, you just had to take classes, some of them offered at "night schools", and then write whatever government and/or guild exams were reuqired for entry into the profession.

I don't know much about that history, but I do vaguely recall reading bios of lawyers(outside the US as well) where they said "While working as a janitor, he took law-courses at night school and blah blah blah". Mind you, I'm not sure if those night schools qualified as just tutorial bins, community colleges, or what.

In any case, you probably couldn't revert back to non-univeristy law schools any time soon, so a Costco run institution is ASB. But there are still private totors for the LSAT and whatnot, so I guess Costco could open one of those, and their students would have to bear the brunt of late-night comedians jokes.

The days of becoming a lawyer without a university degree are long since past, but it did exist. I believe Harry Truman was one such student, though he never graduated nor passed the bar. There was (or is in some states) the ability to "read law" under the supervision of a practicing lawyer. This is what Lincoln did. Night schools do still exist. While they require a degree, I know several people who have gone that route and gone on to successful careers.

As for a Costco law school, why not? The battle is in getting accredited. Get that and their law degree is as good as Yale's for being allowed to take the bar exam. With costs being what they are, somebody will step in with a lower cost alternative to the traditional university.
 
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