University of Buffalo School of Law. Courtesy photo.

The University of Buffalo School of Law is poised to become the second law campus in the country to offer an undergraduate degree in the law.

The school announced Friday that it will launch the new bachelor's degree in law in the upcoming academic year—an expansion of the undergraduate minor in law that is began offering in the fall of 2018. The goal, according to James Milles, the law school's vice dean for undergraduate studies, is to prepare students for the broadening set of careers that are in or adjacent to the law yet don't require a law degree.

“Whole new careers have developed to support legal work,” Milles said in an announcement of the initiative. “Many of these careers do not require a licensed lawyer, but do require some understanding of the law among other technical skills.”

The program is meant to appeal to undergraduate students who see value in a legal background for their future careers; those who aspire to go on to study political science, social work, economics, sociology or international relations; and those who think they may want to continue on the law school and get a J.D. Officials pointed to compliance as a growing area related to the law, but doesn't require a law degree to work in.

The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law became the first law school to expand into the undergraduate realm with a full B.A. degree in 2014. The program has proven a success. The law faculty now teaches more than twice as many undergraduates as its 340 J.D. students, and Arizona began offering the program online in 2017.

Buffalo's new undergraduate law degree will also expand access to legal education and “open the door” to law training, said Dean Aviva Abramovsky. School officials said they expect enrollment in the undergraduate major to rival that of the J.D. program, which now sits at about 450 students.

“As New York State's law school, we are committed to broadening access to legal education,” says Abramovsky. “The BA in law allows us to provide new pathways for a meaningful legal education in a constantly evolving society.”

School officials said the new degree will have a soft launch in the fall, with a full opening in the spring. The coursework for the undergraduate degree will sound familiar to anyone who has gone through law school. Undergraduates will take the American legal system, common law, public law and legal reasoning. As they progress through the program, students can choose from courses such as contract law, criminal law, intellectual property, business organizations and business law, and federal income tax to international climate change law and sports law, as well as electives from other academic departments.