Once you look at things from the employer’s viewpoint, the student’s viewpoint makes a lot of sense.

I’ve suggested in other discussions that there should be law schools that focus on preparing students to become lawyers and law schools that have a two year program that focuses students on law related fields.

The same law school could do both. Consider the placement of the bottom half of many law schools.

First year classes are relatively inexpensive from an institutional standpoint. After the first year, those who do poorly might well be served in a year long program that teaches them how to become an insurance adjuster, how to work as an independent practice bankruptcy paralegal, how to be a contracts officer in a corporation, how to handle compliance issues, or one of many, many law related jobs where a basic legal foundation is very helpful, but a JD is more than is needed.

The tuition, the teaching approach and the student motivation and direction would vary dramatically between programs.

I suspect that any program that had real, substantial placement would find students and would deliver value.