Consider Law Schools With In-House Firms, Incubators

Incubators at law schools can help recent graduates get their firms off the ground.

After Nicholas Edelson graduated from law school in 2003, it took him years to find his niche as an attorney working with subprime mortgages.

Just when he was comfortable, the subprime market took a turn for the worse.

"By the time the bubble collapsed in August of 2007, I was in contract to buy my own place, my wife was pregnant and my own business was going right down the tubes," says the City University of New York graduate. "I joined the incubator right after that."

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Edelson was a member of the inaugural group admitted to the Incubator for Justice program at CUNY. The incubator provides between eight and 10 law graduates with training and mentoring as they start their own practices serving disadvantaged communities. Attorneys stay in the incubator for about 18 months.

The school created the first law school incubator, says Lisa Reiner, interim director of the Community Legal Resource Network at CUNY. Since then possibly a dozen schools have started similar programs, which have some similarities to a school's legal clinic.

One main difference is the number of cases someone may handle. A law student may have one or two cases through a school clinic. A law graduate in an incubator may have 25 cases.

Schools that provide new attorneys with the option of joining an incubator or a similar program can be enticing to prospective law students.

"A number of people come to law school saying 'My goal is to set up a community practice,'" says Reiner. "It's very hard to just do it on a dime with no community and no support. So that's an attractive option for people who have that idea and they want to do that. It's also attractive as the landscape changes as far as what options there are for lawyers to practice. The option of practicing on one's own becomes more attractive to people."

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At the Pace Community Law Practice, which opened in September, law graduates get hands-on training serving clients who often can't afford the standard rate for legal services. Their practice areas include immigration, family law and disability rights, among other things.

"We're learning about office management, ethics, interviewing and counseling clients, advocacy," says Craig Relles, a 2012 graduate of Pace University.

After a year, fellows gain some independence and can open their own office. Relles says it's an excellent transition from law school to practicing as an attorney. But wanting to help people who can't afford legal services is imperative.

"For people who are just looking to have a job, something like this probably isn't the best thing," he says. "You need to be also committed to the work."

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For Kristi Lee Graham, working at her school's incubator allowed her to jump-start her career goals. She always wanted to start her own practice but thought it would take five to 10 years.

Graham joined The Center for Solo Practitioners at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, her alma mater, just a few months after it opened last fall. It had been less than five years since she graduated.

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5 Reasons International Students Should Consider MOOCs

Increasingly, MOOCs are being offered in languages other than English.

At 15, it seems unlikely Priya Prabhakar would know much about college.

But the rising high school sophomore has already taken six college courses from some of America's best universities, earning high marks in everything from poetry to computer programming.

Prabhakar, from Chennai, India, is one of thousands of students across the globe taking massive open online courses. And she can't get enough of them.

"I'm a curious person," says Prabhakar, who has already signed up for at least four more courses. "I have interests in many different fields and subjects." As a student contemplating her future career, she says MOOCs are great at fulfilling her curiosity about a variety of topics.

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For decades, American-style higher education was out of reach for millions of international students. But now, thanks to MOOCs, students no longer have to hop on a plane and pay thousands of dollars in tuition to get a taste of the U.S. college experience.

Acing a MOOC won't help you earn a U.S. degree – yet. Most American universities won't accept transfer credit for the courses.

But that doesn't mean the classes aren't worthwhile. MOOCs can still inspire people, lead to additional job skills and impress future employers or admissions deans, experts say. Below are several reasons why international students might consider taking a MOOC.

1. The courses are free. To take a course from a world-renowned Harvard professor in the past, students likely would have had to shell out thousands of dollars. These days, students can watch that same professor lecture and follow his syllabus without spending a dime.

Students should note, though, that some MOOC providers charge fees to students who want to earn a certificate showing they successfully completed the course or to take a test proving their mastery.

2. The courses may be in your native language. Most MOOCs are offered by American professors and taught in English. But that is quickly changing.

"MOOCs are increasingly an international phenomenon," says Andrew Ng, cofounder of Coursera, the largest of the MOOC providers.

About 60 percent of Coursera's students are from outside of the United States. To keep that figure high and growing, Ng says the company is always looking to expand its offerings.

In the last few months, Coursera has added a limited number of courses taught in Italian, German, Chinese, French and Spanish.

Leaders of edX, another one of the major MOOC providers, have said they plan to offer more classes in different languages in the future, though English is the sole language now. Udacity, the third major player, states on its website that its courses offer subtitles in many different languages, including Spanish, Chinese, French and Portuguese.

3. MOOCs can inspire. Some international students take MOOCs simply for the joy of learning.

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Tamara Duli, a Serbian undergraduate student at the International University of Novi Pazar studying English language and literature, says she's taken four Coursera classes on poetry, Greek and Roman mythology and other topics – just for her own enrichment.

Although the course work can be a bit much to handle on top of her regular school assignments, she says the classes are worth it in terms of the knowledge and inspiration she's gained.

"I have already enrolled in nine other courses," she wrote in an email. "I became utterly addicted. I just hope I'll manage them all."

Students such as Duli who are stirred by MOOCs may go on to do great things for their countries and communities, says Paul Corey, president of science, business and technology at Pearson, an education services company.

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