More law schools are beginning to offer students the opportunity to participate in online courses, potentially allowing candidates facing geographical or employment-related barriers to pursue a legal education and—eventually—a legal career.

But there may be another unexpected fringe benefit awaiting those students once graduation rolls around. The shift toward online coursework also complements a larger, industry-agnostic trend toward remote working and virtual offices, which requires employees to be fluent in digital communication skills and possess an ability to work independently.

According to Jared Coseglia, founder and CEO at cybersecurity, e-discovery and privacy staffing firm Tru Staffing Partners, 27% of the job placements his organization made in 2018 were for remote working opportunities, an increase of 20% from 2014.

"Gaining an education and knowing how to self-educate through virtual technology is leverage for telling an employer that you'll be successful working from home and so many more jobs are virtual," Coseglia said.

Many of the competitive advantages that students may be receiving are ancillary to any legal knowledge or even tech-related skills that may be built into the curriculum. Yaacov Silberman, a founding partner and the chief operating officer at Rimon PC, doesn't think that success as a remote employee is even about technical prowess.

"I think there is sort of a cultural, behavioral, interpersonal quality you have to have if you're working at home," Silberman said.

It's nothing new to consider higher education as an experience that teaches students the behaviors and social protocols that will be expected of them in the workplace. However, online education may be expanding on those traditional graces by requiring those engaged to develop and maintain their personal brands and reputations primarily online.

Students comprising the first cohort of the University of New Hampshire School of Law's hybrid J.D. program, which allows participants to complete the vast majority of their coursework online, recently partook in a virtual open house. University dean Megan Carpenter said that she was originally nervous about how the students would develop a sense of community without much face-to-face time, but those fears were allayed once students took the initiative to exchange phone numbers and break up into smaller chat groups online.

"Their ability to really engage in the online space in the classroom is really what they're going to be doing in the practice of law. Their clients are not going to work down the street from them," Carpenter said.

However, client relationships may not be the ones that most benefit from an online education. Silberman pointed out that even if they happened to share the same building, attorneys and their clients have typically communicated through the use of technology. Interfirm relationships, on the other hand, have been tweaked by the rise of the virtual workplace.

Remote workers, for example, need to be more proactive about seeking and delivering feedback. Building inter-team relationships also requires a deliberate effort. Rimon has an internal social media system where employees can share items of professional relevance, but those who inject some personal appeal can also see dividends.

"The occasional picture of them with their family or on their vacation or commenting on people's posts, they develop a certain reputation within the organization that I think is important," Silberman said.