Alumni and Friends Making an Impact

Ciaran Brennan ’24 transitioned through three jobs and five different cities during law school, but his coursework continued uninterrupted — and that was because of the University of Dayton’s Online Hybrid J.D. program.

Brennan’s interest in law began while working as a federal supervisory agent where he frequently faced difficult law and policy-related questions.

“Whenever I had a question about a law or a policy, or why a particular case wasn’t accepted by the U.S. attorney, I would ask a bunch of questions, but nobody ever had any answers for me,” said Brennan. “It made me think that maybe I should go to law school.”

Unable to find a law school nearby, he searched for online options. That search led him to Dayton’s Online Hybrid J.D. program, which receives support through donors to the School of Law’s Dean’s Fund for Excellence during One Day, One Dayton. When UDSL offered him a scholarship, his decision was final.

In 2019, the University of Dayton became one of the first four American Bar Association-approved schools to offer a fully online Juris Doctor program, long before the pandemic made remote learning commonplace.

“This was a deliberate, transformative decision, driven by Dayton’s spirit of innovation,” said Victoria VanZandt, assistant dean for the Law@Dayton Hybrid J.D. program.

The Online Hybrid J.D. offers students like Brennan the flexibility to attend weekly classes online, participate in interactive coursework and join opportunities like Moot Court, Mock Trial and Law Review. The program also requires externships, ensuring hands-on learning so students graduate prepared to practice.

For Brennan, managing the rigorous requirements of his coursework alongside a full-time job was challenging but rewarding. It helped develop critical skills for professional success.

“The program does a very good job of teaching you how to succeed at the very beginning, especially with the time block and management techniques,” said Brennan.

The Online Hybrid J.D. is specifically designed to serve high-achieving students, often with complex schedules, from diverse fields.

“Our goal in building and getting this program approved was to reach a broader audience and give them the flexibility they needed,” said VanZandt. “You have a lot of people who want a J.D. degree, but to come to a residential campus, they would have to uproot or restructure their whole life.”

The flexibility of the program has made a law degree accessible to students with constraints of location, work or family.

“I had one student who had to go to Bahrain when her husband was relocated there,” said VanZandt. “Without the online option, she would have had to take a break or drop out. Or Ciaran, who is highly accomplished and extremely busy but wouldn’t have gone for this degree without the online option.”

The program broadens the reach of the Dayton legal community while enabling students and graduates to serve the communities where they are physically situated. At the same time, the hybrid students receive the same orientation on campus as the residential students, so they become part of the Dayton community and fully establish themselves in the program.

VanZandt hopes continued support of the Dean’s Fund for Excellence during One Day, One Dayton can help further develop interactions between online, hybrid and fully residential students through a weekend to maximize the collaborative experience — and bring more students like Brennan, who became an associate editor of the law review at UD.

“This program opens doors for people who otherwise would not have an opportunity to go to law school and advance their careers,” said Brennan. “The online J.D. program is the only way that I could maintain my job and go to law school simultaneously. What I have achieved here has opened doors to many more career paths for me.”