Partnership with Seattle U broadens access to legal education and legal services

I am pleased to announce a new and innovative partnership between UW Tacoma and the Seattle University School of Law. Together we aim to increase access to legal education and careers, and legal services, for residents of Tacoma and the South Sound region.

UW Tacoma will be the founding principal partner of Seattle U Law’s new South Sound Hybrid Hub. The Hub will provide significant in-person and virtual programming, counseling, networking, employment and experiential learning opportunities and resources for both UW Tacoma undergraduates and students in Seattle U Law’s Flex JD hybrid-online degree program.

UW Tacoma and Seattle U share a goal of bridging the equity divide and making law school an attainable goal for first-generation and underrepresented students. Seattle U Law is unique in the state for being able to offer a hybrid model of legal education that serves place-bound students.

This partnership with Seattle U Law complements the work we have already carried out to make legal education more accessible. With state funding, we launched the Legal Pathways program in 2018, which helps students prepare for law school, connect with the local legal community and pursue legal career opportunities. Seattle U Law launched the Flex JD program in 2021 to make it possible for aspiring lawyers who live in areas without convenient access to a law school to earn law degrees and stay in their home communities as attorneys.

Currently, one quarter of Seattle U Law’s Flex JD students come from the South Sound region, in part because Tacoma is one of the largest communities in the nation without a law school.

I am also delighted that Patricia Sully, who has so ably served as founding director of Legal Pathways here at UW Tacoma, will continue in that role and will also support activities of the South Sound Hybrid Hub. To date, Legal Pathways, part of our Office of Community Partnerships, has seen more than 100 students accepted into law school and runs more than 30 workshops and seminars each academic year. Local attorneys and legal professionals volunteer as mentors, speakers and role models for our students and alumni.

Please join me in thanking Dr. Ali Modarres, Assistant Chancellor for Community Partnerships, for his years of work guiding the Legal Pathways program, strengthening our relationships with the South Sound legal community, and spearheading this collaboration with Seattle U Law.

You can read more about the South Sound Hybrid Hub here and here.