Mitchell Hamline continues to innovate in a variety of ways to expand access to law school
Michelle and Chris Furrer nearly gave up on law school because the commutes to the nearest law schools would be too long. The married couple lives and works on Chris’s family’s third-generation cattle farm in rural Monroe, Washington, the town where they grew up.
Then they discovered Mitchell Hamline’s blended-learning enrollment option, which lets students attend partially online. Michelle left her teaching job to focus on law school and the farm, while Chris balanced school, the farm, and a remote job.
“It’s been such a gift to attend together,” said Michelle Furrer, who graduated this past spring. “It’s a difficult degree, but we really feel Mitchell Hamline strives to work with second-career students like us.”
For more than a century, Mitchell Hamline and its legacy schools have been rooted in the idea that law school should be available to more people, not fewer. The first law schools in Minnesota to offer night classes and a weekend program are part of that history, which allowed students with jobs to attend part-time. The addition of a day program opened law school to more people, including women. And last decade, the nation’s first partially online enrollment option at an ABA-approved law school expanded legal education across the globe.
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