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Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA
Also topical here - though lightly because we don't want to even consider it - is whether law schools will even run in Fall 2020 since those courses are very much NOT meant to be done online.
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I have a little insight here for what it is worth.
I teach as an adjunct at UNC-CH Law School. The school finished/is finishing the year online. From what I can tell, no one is even thinking about what to do in Fall 2020. But the plan is certainly to happen. And, if I had to guess, they'd rather it happen online than not happen at all if it comes to having to make that choice. The expenses for the law school are the tenured faculty, who I assume they would still have to pay. So I am not even sure that most of the schools could afford to not get tuition payments for a year.
And you are correct about the lost value of doing it online. In terms of coursework, most of your first year courses are lecture courses, so there's a superficial sense in which a lot of the curriculum could "easily" translate to online. But law is a networking profession. And there is a ton of value in being on campus and meeting people and making friends who will become your colleagues and just physically making the transition from jeans-wearing college kid to coat-and-tie wearing guy who advises banks on how to merge with each other. You would lose a TON doing the first year of law school online, IMO.
I will also advise as someone who is in a position to hire lawyers that a gap year between college and law school won't hurt him--especially considering COVID as a very valid excuse. For a lawyer, your resume begins at law school.
If he is in a position to defer his admission for a year after he gets in, then that's a hard choice with a lot of moving parts that he'll have to make. But, if he is worried about it looking bad to future employers that he took a year (or more) between college and law school, then he really should not. And I hope that that turns at least one of his variables into a constant.