Libby Downey has been a nurse, a Monterey City Council member, and a member of nearly 40 boards across six decades of service on the Monterey Peninsula. At 88, she is a law student.**

There is a conversation Libby Downey remembers having with Mitch Winick, the former dean of Monterey College of Law.

"I said, 'You know, Mitch, if I had my life to do over, the only thing I wish I had done is go to law school,'" she recalled. "And he said, 'Well, come to my law school.'"

She had not expected that to be an actual option.

"When he said that was a possibility, I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I think I've wanted to do this all my life.'"

Two years later, Downey is 88 years old and enrolled at Monterey College of Law. She is approaching a master's degree in legal studies. And according to Winick, she may hold a distinction no one has thought to look for.

"I have a strong suspicion she is the oldest law student in the United States," he said.

A choice that was made for her:

Downey's interest in the law is not new. It dates to high school, and it went nowhere for reasons that had nothing to do with her.

"My choices in that day, a woman was to be a nurse, a school teacher, or a secretary," she said. "So I thought that was it."

She became a nurse. She was also, over the following sixty years, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a Monterey City Council member, and a participant in nearly 40 boards and civic organizations across the Peninsula. By any reasonable measure she built a full life of public service.

The law school question simply never went away.

Why it was possible now:

Downey is one of roughly 100 students enrolled at Monterey College of Law, which operates one of the first two accredited online JD programs in the country. Classes meet in the evening, which is the reason students with jobs, families and obligations are able to attend at all.

That structure is deliberate, and it reflects how the College understands its purpose.

"The practice of law is such a critical part of equity and fairness in our community," Winick said. "We need lawyers, and we particularly need lawyers who are rooted to the community."

Downey intends to use the degree. She is considering mediation, or consulting work with attorneys in the medical field or in city policy, both areas where six decades of practical experience would be difficult to replicate.

She is also clear-eyed about the arithmetic.

"You know you're not going to have as many years to practice what you're doing," she said. "But the enrichment and the learning, nobody can take away from me what I've learned in law school."

What keeps her going:

Downey's answer to why she is doing this is not especially sentimental.

"I don't want to sit around and watch TV and go out to lunch," she said. "I need to do something where I feel like I'm accomplishing something."

Winick, who has watched her work, put it another way.

"Libby could've retired many times," he said. "And yet what Libby does is she looks and finds something else to do in service."

As for what comes next, Downey is taking it in order.

"I'm getting very close to a master's in legal studies. So I think I'll do that first and then we'll see if I hang in there."

Her own summary of the whole undertaking is shorter than any of it.

"It just makes life so much more interesting."

**Libby Downey's story was featured by KSBW in July 2026. [Watch the segment.](https://www.ksbw.com/article/monterey-woman-88-dream-attending-law-school/73275619)**

**Monterey College of Law holds classes in the evening across five programs in Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield, Santa Rosa and online, so that students can earn a legal education without leaving their careers or their communities. [Learn about our programs and upcoming application deadlines.](#)**