Elon University received the go-ahead to begin offering admission to applicants at its part-time law school in Charlotte.
The American Bar Association and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges approved applications to begin the Elon Law Flex Program and Elon University’s Charlotte campus, respectively.
The ABA shared its part-time program decision with Elon University in December. SACSCOC formally communicated its Charlotte campus approval to university leaders on Jan. 30.
Elon University will cater its Law Flex Program to working professionals and only offer classes at night. Where full-time Elon Law students at the school’s Greensboro campus go through a 2.5-year program, the flex program is designed to be completed over four years.
The Charlotte school is located in Charlotte’s South End neighborhood and expects to enroll an initial cohort of at least 35 students. Classes will begin in August. Plans for the program were announced in September and Elon Law began accepting applications Oct. 1.
Approval from the ABA and SACSCOC gives Elon Law the OK to extend offers of admission.
Students in the Flex Program will have the opportunity to take many of the same elective courses as those offered in Elon Law’s full-time Greensboro program, plus others tailored to the Charlotte market such as banking law, health law and sports and entertainment law.
Elon has operated a law school in downtown Greensboro since 2006, and it now has more than 400 students. The university hopes to build on the success it has experienced in Greensboro, about 85 miles from Charlotte.
“Elon Law’s presence in Charlotte allows us to deepen our relationship with a legal community that regularly welcomes our student residents, hosts our summer student interns and hires our graduates,” says Elon Law Dean Zak Kramer in a release. “About 10% of all Elon Law alumni live and work in the Charlotte region, and I’m excited to see the wonderful ways our law school will continue to make a difference in the lives of so many people.”
Elon’s program will be the only in-person law program offered in Charlotte. Charlotte has not had a law school since the private Charlotte School of Law closed in 2017, a year after the American Bar Association put it on probation amid questions of whether it was following basic admission standards and federal student aid laws.
Currently N.C. Central University’s School of Law is the only law school in the state to offer a part-time schedule with approval from the American Bar Association.
Elon University reports more than 550 people have expressed interest in Charlotte law school and it has received “several dozen completed applications.” The school expects to see an increase in applications as more students hear that the school has been given the go-ahead to begin. Total program cost will be approximately $130,000 over the four years of the program, according to Elon Law.