Drexel's Earle Mack School of Law announces two-year law degree program

A Philadelphia university has just become the first in the region to make it easier for law

school graduates to enter the workforce that much quicker.

The Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University announced this week that it will be launching the aptly titled “Fast Forward,” a two-year J.D. program that offers the same opportunities through hands-on learning through co-op placements, clinical work and pro bono service, and requires the same number of credits as a traditional three-year J.D. program, but in one year’s less time.

“Fast Forward offers highly motivated students an attractive option for completing their education and getting a head start on their careers,” law school Dean Roger Dennis said in a statement. “We are not creating this program to increase enrollment, but to provide alternatives to strong students who have well-defined professional goals.”

According to the university, Fast Forward’s advantage is that it will enable students to reduce the time by which they’re enrolled in law school and give them an opportunity to enter the workforce one year earlier than normal.

The program, the school said, is expected to be intense, since it combines the coursework of a typical three-year program into two years, and as such is best suited to students who have strong academic credentials, who have significant life experience after college or who have decided on a specific career path in legal practice.

Those enrolled in the program, which will launch in May 2014, will be eligible to take part in the Drexel Law Review, Moot Court, Mock Trial and all extracurricular activities at the law school, as well as the Co-op Program, the Clinical Program, and Pro Bono service.

Students who find the program to be too intense always have the option of decelerating to the three-year schedule, the school stated.

Students enrolled in Fast Forward are also eligible to receive all of the same merit scholarships available to other law students at Earle Mack.