"Building on its leading edge in technology law and policy offerings, Georgetown University Law Center will debut two new graduate programs this fall to equip lawyers and a broader variety of professionals to tackle the toughest questions on the tech policy horizon.
The first-of-its-kind Master of Law and Technology (M.L.T.) will allow non-lawyers – including computer scientists, engineers, Hill staff, entrepreneurs, and civil society advocates – to build a solid foundation in technology law and hone specialized expertise in tech-related policy issues.
The other new program, aimed at lawyers, trains tomorrow’s leaders in tech policy in the city where the nation’s laws are made. The new Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Technology Law and Policy is poised to become the premier program for lawyers to master the policy dynamics of the ever-evolving tech landscape." …
The MLT degree seems to be close to violating state bar rules concerned with the unauthorized practice of law.
While UPL is tolerated in certain areas such as real estate and taxes due to the sheer number of real estate agents and accountants in the US, it is unclear as to the need for a program such as the MLT degree for anything other than equipping non-lawyers to engage in the unauthorized practice of law.
For Georgetown University, this program, designed to allow non-lawyers to build a solid foundation in technology law, appears to be little more than another source of revenue.
It may be time for the American Bar Association (ABA) to examine the proliferation of masters programs in law offered to non-lawyers by ABA accredited law schools to assess whether or not these programs constitute “assisting others in the unauthorized practice of law”.
A first step would be to examine whether LLM in Technology Law and Policy classes for lawyers are open to and include students in the MLT program for non-lawyers.
P.S. As an aside: The University of Denver, for example, commingles lawyers & non-layers in the LLM Tax program for lawyers and the MST (masters of taxation) program for accountants, while the University of Washington in Seattle separates the two tax programs into one at the law school solely for lawyers and one in the business school for accountants.
While commingling of lawyers and non-lawyers is not a problem under the Washington DC bar rules (or European bar rules and under some Federal Bar rules), it is a concern in the other 50 state bar jurisdictions in the US where lawyers and non-lawyers cannot share office space or profits and earnings from the practice of law or assist non-lawyers in the unauthorized practice of law.
P.S. The irony in the University of Denver situation of commingling accountants and lawyers in masters programs dealing with tax laws is that the Colorado State Bar arguably engages in the strictest enforcement in the nation of its bar rules.
(As an example which attracted national attention: Several years ago a Colorado attorney was disciplined for the unauthorized practice of law by both the Colorado State Bar & the State Bar of Minnesota for giving advice over the phone to his in-laws in Minnesota over a minor consumer dispute. The Minnesota attorney turned in the Colorado lawyer after the in-laws stated that our son-in-law is a lawyer & he told us…)
Without knowing more about the program course offerings, I cannot offer an opinion as to whether or not the LLM in Technology Law and Policy for lawyers is or is not simply a revenue generator–especially so as I see frequent job postings for attorneys with interest & experience in these areas. (Job postings by law firms as well as by individual companies.)
My concern is with the MLT degree program for non-lawyers.
(I am old enough to remember law firms scrambling to find & hire anyone with knowledge of Immigration Law & then Environmental Law, and I know the opportunities for those earning an LLM in Taxation, so I do know that some LLM degrees can be valuable.)