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University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law Announces Masters of Science in Law Degree

New degree focuses on training professionals to meet specialized workforce needs in health care law, environmental law, and crisis management

The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of has launched a Masters of Science in Law (MSL) degree program. The 30-credit, part-time evening program will be taught by Maryland Carey Law faculty members and experts from government agencies, the judiciary, and the practicing bar at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP). The two-year-long program will welcome its first class in the fall of 2015, and is now recruiting students.

The MSL degree will provide working professionals with the specialized and practical legal knowledge demanded by an increasingly complicated and regulated business and policy environment.

“The MSL degree will give students, especially those who are interested in law but do not want to pursue a JD degree, the specialized legal knowledge to succeed in jobs that require or are complemented by an understanding of the law,” says Maryland Carey Law dean Donald B. Tobin, JD.

Building on Maryland Carey Law’s nationally ranked specialty areas, Maryland Carey Law’s Law & Health Care Program is ranked number one in the country, and the Environmental Law Program number six by U.S. News & World Report, the MSL degree offers three concentrations for some of today’s most highly regulated industries:

*Health Care Law: Addresses the critical need for legal education in the highly regulated and rapidly changing field of health care
*Environmental Law: Provides a sophisticated understanding of the increasingly global and regulated environmental landscape
*Crisis Management: Prepares students to lead institutions in effectively responding to natural and human-made disasters
In the program’s first year, students receive an overview of public and private law. Beginning in the second half of the first year, they will take courses and seminars in legal writing, research, and analysis. During the second year, they take seminars on specialized issues in their field and apply their work experience in a year-long capstone project.

“The MSL degree tailors legal education to new market realities,” says Diane Hoffmann, JD, MS, professor and director of the law school’s Law and Health Care Program, who will teach in the Health Care Law concentration. She notes that businesses, government agencies, and non-profits need staff who understand the legal and policy ramifications of the Affordable Care Act, Health Insurance Portability Act, health care IT, and privacy compliance.

“As environmental regulation increases in complexity, the MSL degree will provide the foundation for understanding and shaping policy developments in this increasingly important field,” says Robert Percival, JD, Robert F. Stanton Professor of Law and director of the Environmental Law Program, who will lead the Environmental Law concentration.

The MSL degree will help train non-lawyers to work in crisis management, says Michael Greenberger, JD, professor and founding director of the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security, who will lead the Crisis Management concentration. “This degree enables leaders in the Maryland, Washington, and Virginia region—the epicenter of the emergency response space—to develop expertise in crisis management.”

This fall, 125 undergraduate students enrolled in MLAW, a state-of-the-art collaboration between Maryland Carey Law and UMCP. MLAW features a minor in Law and Society, and the College Park Scholars Justice and Legal Thought Living-Learning Program that introduces students to law and justice through classroom and experiential learning. MLAW students participate in events at Maryland Carey Law. Faculty from Maryland Carey Law will begin instructing MLAW students in the spring of 2015.

“By bringing together resources and leaders from across the University of Maryland, and by partnering with Maryland Carey Law, we have created a truly unparalleled opportunity for students of all majors and areas of interest to add a law and society focus to their undergraduate studies,” says Robert Koulish, PhD, director of MLAW programs in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, and Research Associate Professor in the Department of Government and Politics at UMCP.

The MSL and MLAW programs are part of the Legal Education in College Park initiative of University of Maryland: MPowering the State, a collaborative partnership between the University of Maryland, Baltimore and UMCP.