Haley Beuthel, a senior processor for a small private investment firm, is a current student in the online Master of Legal Studies in Compliance and Risk Management program at Seattle University. She began her journey in this program in January of 2025. She is following a financial compliance track and has tailored her workload to her interest in real estate.
Haley shared her motivations for choosing the SU MLS program and how her time at Seattle University is helping her achieve her goals.
Motivation to Choose the Seattle MLS
For Haley, the decision to pursue the online Master of Legal Studies (MLS) program at Seattle University was about seeking advancement after five years in the real estate industry. She loved her work but wasn’t confident that she could achieve the next level of success. After researching her options and speaking with peers about how to secure those higher-level decision-making roles, a clear theme emerged: risk management and compliance.
The Seattle MLS program stood out to Haley because it provides a path to get in the room with decision-makers. She saw an opportunity to develop skills and knowledge that can carry her through 40 years in a career. The MLS provided the perfect means to not only master legal and compliance concepts relevant to her work but also to build a network of inspiring people who could help shape her professional purpose.
Impact of the Program on Haley’s Career
Through the MLS program, Haley is learning real-time skills that she is able to apply directly to her current day-to-day work. Further, the professors have a deep understanding of their industries, providing Haley with an innovative perspective on how to develop herself professionally. Faculty are uniquely focused on preparing students for success and building ethical leaders who make a difference.
Advantages of an Online Program
For Haley, a major benefit of the online program is that she doesn’t have to put her career on hold to pursue her education. She can immediately apply her learning from the program to her current role.
Haley was initially worried about pursuing an online degree, particularly that she would miss out on the connections from working alongside other students in person and the support provided by in-person programs. However, she has found that she is learning alongside like-minded peers and that the program fosters a genuine community among students and professors. She also has access to the same academic and technological resources as in-person students.
A Program that Supports Student Success
Haley has benefited from the various tools and resources that help her succeed academically and professionally. The program provides access to legal resources and programs, such as Westlaw, and she can use the expertise of the law librarians to support her studies. The MLS program promotes student career success through career counseling. Haley feels comfortable reaching out to her counselor whenever she feels she needs support.
In addition to the tools and resources available to MLS students, the curriculum is tailored to provide the foundation of legal knowledge necessary for leadership roles in compliance and risk management. Haley specifically mentions the Legal Research and Writing course and Intro to the American Legal System, both of which teach knowledge and skills that are JD-adjacent but more operational in a way that is useful for her career. The professors ask students to grapple with tough questions and complex scenarios but simultaneously provide active support that allows students to stretch their understanding. Further, Haley feels her professors help bridge the gap between the theory of law and its applicability to her career.
Advice to Prospective Students
Haley recommends that prospective students be engaged and not hold back. She believes that all the learning, knowledge, and skills developed in the program will “start to click,” and that is proof that everything the program asks of students is working.
She tells students to “take the risk, run the experiment, believe that you can make it to the next step” and that they will not be alone on this journey.
A Transformative Experience
According to Haley, the Seattle University MLS program is technical, transformative, and encouraging. It helps students develop goals they were unaware they had and reveals opportunities that students like her are seeking.
Haley credits the program with allowing her to develop a new relationship with uncertainty and risk, not just in her career but also in life. The world is changing, she says, but the assignments, concepts, and questions that she has engaged with in the program help her face that changing world with a resiliency and fortitude that will last throughout her career.
On a final note to prospective students, Haley says of Seattle University, “You absolutely belong here. There are a lot of people excited to see you succeed.”
