"It sounded like the perfect middle ground..."
Jacquelyn Butler knew she wanted to work in law long before she stepped into a classroom at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. What she did not know was whether law school was the right next step—or how to break into the legal profession as a first-generation student navigating the process largely on her own.
Now, as one of the first graduates of the Law School's new Master of Legal Studies (MLS) program, Butler says the degree gave her exactly what she needed: practical legal experience, professional confidence, and clarity about her future in law.
“I wanted to get my foot in the door with the legal profession without having a JD currently,” Butler said. “The MLS program gave me a lot of opportunities that I don’t think I would have had if I had just done undergraduate.”
A South Bend native and IU Bloomington graduate, Butler earned her undergraduate degree through the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, majoring in law and public policy while minoring in business and Spanish. She also helped lead the university’s Pre-Law Association, motivated in part by her own experience navigating the legal education process as a first-generation student.
“I had no clue what I was doing,” she said. “There were all these fees, deadlines, applications—things nobody had ever explained to me before. I wanted to help make that process more accessible for other students.”
Although Butler originally planned to attend law school immediately after graduating, she instead found herself searching for a bridge between undergraduate study and a legal career. The new MLS program at Maurer offered exactly that opportunity.
“It sounded like the perfect middle ground,” she said.
The one-year graduate program allows students to take courses alongside Juris Doctor students while building a foundational understanding of legal systems, analysis, and practice. For Butler, the experience was immersive from the very beginning.
Her first law school course—Criminal Procedure Investigations—was intimidating.
“I walked in, and everybody already knew each other,” she recalled. “They were talking about memos and classes I’d never taken. There was definitely imposter syndrome.”
Still, Butler quickly found herself embracing the rigor and pace of law school life.
“I actually loved that professors jumped right in,” she said. “I liked being challenged.”
She also appreciated being treated like any other law student in the classroom.
“I never felt like professors treated MLS students differently,” Butler said. “I didn’t want preferential treatment. I wanted the real law school experience.”
That experience included cold-calling in class, demanding legal writing assignments, and four-hour law school exams—elements that some find daunting.
Butler, however, found them empowering.
“My writing is nowhere near where it was a year ago,” she said. “This program made me so much more confident in my abilities.”