The Advocate - May 2012 - Idaho State Bar - Idaho.gov

no n t r a d i t i o n a l la W st u d e n t s: a 21 s t Ce n t u ry re s o u r C e
Donna Emert
University of Idaho
College of Law
Growing ranks of nontraditional
law students present
new opportunities and new
challenges for law schools
nationwide. The first challenge
is defining them.
“The way we think of the traditional
student is one who attends school from
kindergarten through juris doctorate, is
unmarried, has no children, is attending
law school full time, and probably is not
doing much work outside of academia,”
said Lee Dillion, University of Idaho
College of Law associate dean for Boise
programs.
Nontraditional students include all
who do not fit neatly within those parameters,
including students who are older,
married, have children, are entering law
school from the workforce or are full
time students who simultaneously hold
a job up to 20 hours per week, the maximum
allowed by the American Bar Association
for students taking 12 or more
credit hours per semester.
Dillion, like several University of
Idaho College of Law faculty and staff,
was a nontraditional student himself.
“When I took my daughter to campus
in the late 1970s, it was kind of like
a petting zoo:
the reaction
was ‘look at the
strange creature
you’ve brought!’”
Dillion recalls
with a laugh.
“There were not
many married students
or students
with children.
Since then law
schools generally,
and ours particu-
54 The Advocate • May 2012
Donna Emert
larly, have done a good job addressing
the needs of non-traditional students.”
A significant number of University
of Idaho law students are married, have
children, or are nontraditional in other
ways.
“Every Monday morning I come in to
the law school and see little hand prints
and face prints on our glass door,” said
Dillion, citing one smudgy barometer of
change for law students raising families.
“The spouses often come down here and
interact. We’ve created a pretty friendly
atmosphere that I certainly didn’t feel
when I went to law school.”
For both traditional and nontraditional
students, time management remains
one of the greatest obstacles in
law school. Non-traditional students may
have an edge over K-through-JD students
there, Dillion suggests: “Non-traditional
students often treat law school like a job:
they’re working eight to five. They have
more time pressures, but they’re experienced,
and often better, time managers.”
On the down-side, nontraditional
students’ fuller schedules can mean less
time to get involved in the University’s
diverse clinical programs, externships,
internships, assistantships, publications
and competitions. These experiences are
designed to wed theory and application.
The vast majority of nontraditional
students do take advantage of these onthe-ground
experiences. A third-year law
student in Moscow, Erin Hodgin-Tomlin,
has engaged in extra-curricular activities
that have included co-chairing the Native
American Law Students Association,
participating in the D. Craig Lewis Trial
Team, and serving as the law school’s
volunteer representative on the Latah
County Youth Accountability Board — a
diversion program for first-time juvenile
offenders. In addition she has volun-
Photo by Donna Emert
university of Idaho Law Associate Dean Lee Dillion talks with third-year law student Jeff
Butler about juggling school and family.
“Non-traditional students
often treat law school
like a job: they’re
working eight to five.
They have more time
pressures, but they’re
experienced, and often
better, time managers.”
– Lee Dillion
teered at Latah County’s Small Claims
Court as a mediator, and has logged more
than 150 hours in pro-bono service as a
law student.
Hodgin-Tomlin also has worked
part-time as a research assistant for a law
professor, and part-time for a local public
defender, handling misdemeanors and
representing clients in court, within the
parameters of her limited license.
In between and throughout, she and