Elon University said Tuesday that it has applied to the American Bar Association for approval to launch a full-time, 2.5-year law school in Charlotte, in addition to its existing four-year, part-time program in Charlotte and another full-time law program in Greensboro.
The new law program will be housed on the Queens University campus in Myers Park and will launch with a charter cohort of 75 students in the fall of 2027. The existing part-time program will also relocate from Tremont Street and will be housed on the Queens campus.
The law school is the schools' first major initiative since announcing their intent to merge last year, and it will result in the city’s only full-time juris doctor program in Charlotte since the troubled Charlotte School of Law closed in 2017.
Elon University President Connie Book told reporters the school had always intended to open a full-time program in Charlotte, but the merger allowed it to happen faster and with a significantly cheaper price tag.
“The cost avoidance of having the relationship with Queens is a $31 million issue,” Book said. “Meaning I don’t have to build a new library, a new dining hall. We had imagined leasing a building and then doing improvements to it. So the cost avoidance of the merger is also very powerful.”
The two schools signed the formal agreement stating their intent to merge back in December. The new law school would operate on the Queens campus either upon completion of the merger, or through a lease agreement if the merger isn’t finalized by then. Applications will be accepted starting in August.
Officials said the new opportunity will strengthen Charlotte’s legal community while giving existing part-time students and future full-time students a traditional campus experience that will place them right in the community where they will be learning to practice.
“It’s important to us that our students have a campus experience, and that’s a gym, that’s dining, hopefully it’s housing,” said Zack Kramer, Elon’s Dean of Law. “Our students will integrate into the community and have access to all of the benefits of being on such a wonderful campus.”
Many details remain to sort out. Zak Kramer, Elon’s Dean of Law, said they’ve identified temporary space on the campus, but will figure out more permanent space solutions after the ABA approves the plan. The goal is to add about 25 students per class each year.
Queens University is built to hold smaller classes, so Book says it’s likely modifications will have to be made.
“We’ll be having to model, OK, the curriculum against the classroom space, so we do imagine that we’ll be making some investments in the facility in order to support the law program,” Book said.
Any future law program on campus will need office and classroom space in addition to space for law students to run their own legal clinics – a linchpin of Elon’s experiential-based law program. Book said Elon plans to hold listening sessions in Charlotte to identify what kind of legal clinics are most in need in the community. The Greensboro campus, for instance, hosts an immigration law clinic.
The Greensboro campus’ all-in tuition is $136,000. With a time to completion of 2.5 years, it graduates lawyers faster than traditional three-year full-time programs.
Elon's part-time law program in Charlotte started in 2024. Nadia Mazza, a member of the part-time program’s inaugural class, said she’s excited to get the opportunity to get a more traditional campus experience before graduating.
“Getting access to those facilities will mean a lot to us at that time, even though we’re graduating in 2028 — we could potentially be graduating on that campus, we could be experiencing the library, the gym, the grounds,” Mazza told WFAE. “I think it will be a really expansive environment for learning.”
