Karen Hanson
During her 30 years in the Army, Karen Hanson often looked for online law school programs but never could find any. When she retired in 2020, she was accepted into an Executive Leadership Ph.D. program and discovered law schools were now offering online options. Then, she found Mitchell Hamline—the first ABA-approved law school to offer a substantially online option.
She’d fallen in love with the law while taking a course on business law while getting her accounting degree more than 20 years ago. This month, she’ll complete her studies and graduate law school.
Hanson lived in Missouri during her first two years of law school and now lives in Hawaii—taking advantage of Mitchell Hamline’s mantra: “Earn a J.D. from anywhere in the world.”
Hanson’s is a military family. Her sons both achieved milestones during their mother’s second year of law school: Nicholas was promoted to Sergeant First Class and Chad graduated from Drill Sergeant Academy.
Both Karen Hanson and her husband Tom served several decades in the U.S. Army.
Hanson’s husband, Tom, teaches at Army University after his own career in the Army—nearly 30 years—where he retired as an infantry colonel.
Hanson was drawn to Mitchell Hamline because of its national reputation for work in dispute resolution and mediation, which she had experience with as an Army officer. But along the way during her time in law school, Hanson found she was also drawn to estate planning. She now hopes to work in both mediation and estate planning, which she says “will allow me to help families in greatest need for these services.”
Not that it was easy.
Karen Hanson’s son Nicholas Shears (left) was promoted to Sergeant First Class and son, Chad Lewis (right), graduated from the Drill Sergeant Academy both when Karen was in her second year in law school.
Hanson absolutely had moments when it was difficult and even considered quitting during her first semester but was convinced to stick it out. “After that, when people asked me why I was in law school, I told them ‘because the people who love me the most didn’t stop me,'” she said.
“Now I’m close to graduation and very glad no one stopped me.”
