The law school game is getting rough. Students are starting to wise up that charging nearly $150K for a degree in a market where there are more than 3 barred attorneys for every available law job is a losing proposition. Consequently, law school applications have absolutely tanked. Some people argue that this actually makes this a great time to go to law school. They are wrong.
But we can all agree that the applications collapse is really bad news for the bottom-tier schools that rely on putting impressionable asses in seats to keep afloat. And I single out the lower-tier schools, because it’s not like the T14 are feeling the pinch… they just get less selective while the lower-ranked schools have to perform some magic to keep the scheme going. Some schools have turned to layoffs. Others have closed campuses.
And some are talking merger. Today, Minnesota-based law schools William Mitchell (U.S. News #135) and Hamline (U.S. News #121) — we normally cite our own Above the Law Law School Rankings, but we only rank the top 50 — announced their plan to merge.
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William Mitchell College of Law will combine with Hamline University’s law school as early as this fall, pending approval from the American Bar Association, the two schools said in a joint statement.
The surprise announcement comes at a time when demand for law school graduates has plummeted nationwide, and law school enrollment has dropped to a 40-year low.
The new combined school will be called the Mitchell|Hamline School of Law, and will be located mainly on Mitchell’s St. Paul campus. It will be headed by Mitchell’s new dean, Mark Gordon, who was appointed just last month.
Left out in the cold — which is saying something for St. Paul — is Hamline Dean Jean Holloway, who became the school’s first female law school dean in 2013, but as of today seems to have no clue as to her future role. “It remains to be seen,” she said when asked about whether she’ll survive the merger.
The first shoe has dropped, everybody. Which law schools are next up? Preferably something that’ll make a crazy new name.
Like Tourofstra.
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The full email from William Mitchell Dean Eric Janus — who is stepping down this summer, prior to the merger — is reproduced on the next page….
Hamline, William Mitchell law schools to merge [Star-Tribune]
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