Law school options available to Air Force officers

  • Published
  • By Capt. Shawntell P. Mullins
  • Electronic Systems Center Judge Advocate
HANSCOM AFB, Mass. --  Applications for the Funded Legal Education Program and Excess Leave Program will be accepted Jan. 1 to March 1, 2009. Interested officers should take the Law School Admission Test and apply to law school this fall in order to meet the application deadline.

"FLEP and ELP add military officers with experience in different career fields to the [Judge Advocate General] Corps, helping us build and maintain a corps of judge advocates whose military experience compliments their legal training. This helps us provide commanders with the highest caliber of legal support," said Col. Douglas G. Murdock, Electronic Systems Center staff judge advocate.

According to Colonel Murdock, who was a C-17 program cost analyst before becoming a judge advocate through FLEP, "JAGs help the Air Force accomplish its mission within a legal framework."

In addition to prosecuting and defending clients brought before courts-martial and providing legal assistance, JAG officers routinely participate in nearly every facet of the Air Force mission, including developing and acquiring weapons systems, ensuring availability of airspace and ranges where those systems are tested and operated, consulting with commanders about how those systems are employed under the law of armed conflict and assisting commanders in the day-to-day running of military installations around the world.

The FLEP is a paid legal studies program for active-duty Air Force commissioned officers. The FLEP is an assignment action, and participants receive full pay, allowances, and tuition. FLEP applicants must have between two and six years active-duty service -- enlisted or commissioned -- and must be in the pay grade O-3 or below as of the day they begin law school. The FLEP is subject to tuition limitations, and positions may be limited due to overall funding availability. The Air Force Institute of Technology tuition limit for fiscal year 2009 is expected to be set at approximately $10,000 per year.

The ELP is an unpaid legal studies program for Air Force officers. ELP participants do not receive pay and allowances, but remain on active duty for retirement eligibility and benefits purposes. ELP applicants must have between two and ten years active-duty service and must be in the pay grade O-3 or below as of the first day of law school.

Both the FLEP and ELP require attendance at an American Bar Association-approved law school. Upon graduation and admission to practice law in the highest court of any state, territory of the United States, or a federal court, candidates are eligible for designation as judge advocates. To be considered for FLEP or ELP, applicants must have completed all application forms, applied (acceptance is not required at the time of application for FLEP/ELP) to at least one ABA-approved law school, received their Law School Admissions Test results, and completed a Staff Judge Advocate interview by March 1, 2009. Testing dates for the LSAT can be found at www.lsat.org. Law school application deadlines are set by the individual schools. Officers must also provide a letter of conditional release from their current career field. Selection for both programs is competitive.

Applications will be reviewed by a selection board in early March, and selections will be based on a review of the entire application package using a "whole person" concept. Air Force Instruction 51-101, Judge Advocate Accession Program, Chapters 2 and 3, discuss the FLEP and ELP.

For more information and application materials, visit www.airforce.com/jag, contact the base legal office recruiting coordinator Capt. Shawntell P. Mullins at shawntell.mullins@hanscom.af.mil or (781) 377-4077, or contact Air Force Materiel Command Judge Advocate Capt. Afsana Ahmed at afsana.ahmed@pentagon.af.mil or (800) 524-8723.