Law schools are beginning to unveil more concrete plans for the fall semester, and they aren't all following the same playbook.

The majority of law schools that have shared their tentative fall plans are pushing forward with a hybrid model that offers a mix of online and in-person classes—but the percentage of classes to be offered on campus varies widely. Many schools have told students that they are prioritizing in-person classes for first-year students, with most or all upper-class offerings delivered online. Still others have said they plan to hold some smaller, upper-level seminars and clinics on campus, but all classes with more than 25 students will be online. A significant number of law schools have pushed up their fall start dates in order to wrap up classes before Thanksgiving, while some plan to go fully remote after that holiday—including remote final exams. And a small but growing cohort of law schools have said they will remain fully online for the entirety of fall.

The breadth of approaches law schools are taking highlights COVID-19's upending of the norms of higher education and the uncertainty over how best to balance the health and safety of students and faculty while also delivering a quality legal education program. Law deans across the country have heard from students who want to return to campus, but they are also weighing a resurgence of the COVID-19 infection rates, restrictions and policies imposed by their central university administrators and public health authorities, and health concerns from faculty, staff, and at-risk students. Plenty of law schools are still grappling with their approach to the fall, but it's clear that it won't be businesses as usual. Even law schools that have said they aim to be largely in person next semester have announced measures such as mask requirements and social distancing, as well as the option to be fully remote for any student who so chooses.

"It has been a really complicated set of design challenges," said Jennifer Mnookin, dean of the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, in a late June webinar organized by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP). "We will be more remote than in person in the fall, even if things go as well as possible."

Harvard Law School made a splash in early June when it became the first to announce that it will remain fully remote in the fall—a decision Dean John Manning noted would undoubtedly disappoint many students but which administrators deemed the most prudent course of action. Since then, the University of California, Berkeley School of Law; the University of California Hastings College of Law; Vermont Law School; the University of Connecticut School of Law; and Western Michigan University Cooley Law School have all said they too will be fully online for the fall semester. (The American Bar Association's Council of the Section of Legal Education in May voted to give itself expanded power to waive existing limits on distance education in law schools, clearing the way for fully remote fall semesters.)

The resurging pandemic was a factor in Vermont Law School's decision to remain remote, given that many students come from outside of the state, administrators said in a Monday  announcement. That represents a reversal from early May, when Dean Thomas McHenry said the school anticipated a return to campus with various health protocols in place.

"The most demanding challenge posed by the pandemic is uncertainty," McHenry said. "We want to provide as much notice to our students, faculty and staff, in order to plan appropriately and deliver the high-quality course content and access to faculty that [Vermont Law School] is known for."

But schools that plan to remain fully online for the fall are outliers—at least at this point. Most law schools are pushing to offer at least some courses in person, even if the bulk of instruction takes place via the internet. Law deans are also warning that all courses could switch to a remote format if the pandemic worsens.

Indiana University Maurer School of Law—Bloomington announced in June that it will switch to a block format for all first-year students in hopes of ensuring they receive some on-campus instruction. The required torts, civil procedure, and contracts classes will be taught in intensive four-week sessions with a final exam at the end of each block. The new format is designed to be flexible, said law Dean Austen Parrish. If COVID-19 cases spike at any stage of the fall semester, first-year students should be able to complete at least one full class and final exam in person without having to switch online midway through a class. The block format also gives the law school more flexibility should a professor fall ill during the semester. Moreover, it reduces the risk of problems during final exams, Parrish noted.

"Under the traditional approach, you have all your exams at the end of the semester," he said. "If that was a time when there was a big spike [in COVID-19 cases], that would create a lot of challenges. You hedge the risk with a block schedule. If someone is sick in the first exam because of the virus, they can make that up before the end of the semester."

The bulk of classes for 2Ls and 3Ls will stay online, Parrish added, due to space constraints on campus. Like many other law schools, Indiana is prioritizing in-person classes for first-year law students on the rationale that the 1L year is key to establishing relationships with classmates and faculty, and getting the lay of the land. That's the primary reason the University of California, Irvine School of Law is hoping to offer its 1Ls one or two in-person classes in the fall, while all upper-division classes will be online.

"It's not so much about the teaching," said Irvine law Dean Song Richardson. "It's about continuing to help them enter our community and feel a part of it. We are hearing our 1Ls expressing a desire to see each other. If we can accommodate them and help build community that way, we'd like to try and do that."

Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law are among a small number of schools that have announced significant reductions in the size of their 1L class sections in an effort to allow for in-person classes while still maintaining social distancing. Georgetown's 1Ls classes will have 40 or fewer students this fall, down from a typical section size of about 100, it announced in June. At Penn, 1L sections will be no larger than 45 students, down from about 80. The University of Dayton School of Law is looking for creative ways to minimize the number of students on campus at any given time as well, said dean Andrew Strauss.

"In a typical course, one class a week will be asynchronous online for all students," he said. "For each of the other two residential class sessions in a week, some students will be in the classroom while others will participate via Zoom."

Not everyone is a fan of the hybrid approach that most law schools are taking, however. Northwestern University law professor Dan Rodriguez—a former dean of the Chicago school—wrote in a post on PrawfsBlawg that law schools would do better to devote the summer to figuring out how to deliver a high-quality legal education online rather than overcoming the many hurdles to get small numbers of students on campus, since COVID-19 is likely to force everyone online eventually.

"My prediction is that the hybrid approaches are going to be a bust in any event, given circumstances beyond our control," he wrote. "So why not use July to create valuable templates and strategies for a great, if highly imperfect, educational scheme? So many of us have ideas about how best to do that, as clearly one size doesn't fit all."