Law Schools

Another Law School In Trouble?

Which law school is feeling the pinch of more austere times?

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Fresh off of the news that Charleston Law School is making cuts to their incoming 1L class and pruning graduation festivities in order to keep their balance sheet in order, comes a report from the Boston Globe on the troubles plaguing UMass Law School.

UMass got into the law school business back in 2010, when they took over the small Southern New England School of Law. From the start the plan was controversial, especially with competing nearby law schools.

UMass took over Southern New England School of Law after political opposition quashed a similar attempt in 2005. Private law schools in Boston, including Suffolk University and New England School of Law, lobbied against the proposal both times, saying the state did not need a new law school or more lawyers. They also insisted the school would cost taxpayers millions.

In order to get the plan passed, UMass vowed to keep taxpayer money out of the school. But that wasn’t going to be a problem — enrollment was supposed to increase and voilà, the law school was going to be a self-sustaining entity.

Then law school enrollment around the country started to drop.

Ut-oh. But rather than bail, outgoing UMass president Robert L. Caret has vowed to provide the funding for the law school until it is financially secure.

“There has been a sea change in legal education since UMass Law School was created,” Caret wrote in a 2014 letter to the ABA. “This has meant that the original fiscal projection model is clearly not sustainable.”

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At the moment, UMass law is running at a $3.8 million deficit. The school now forecasts being able to break even in 2018 when they predict enrollment of 450.

Given those financial woes, it may seem strange that the school is cutting the incoming class — and their tuition dollars — by a third. [UPDATE (5/11/15, 3:08 p.m.): The class size reduction was instituted in 2011, and enrollment has continued since then at that lower rate, per Karen Sloan of the National Law Journal.]

But Dean Mary Lu Bilek has a longer term vision for the school:

Bilek is frank about how UMass is trying to bolster its academic profile, by admitting fewer students and those with higher LSAT scores, and by offering more scholarships. Last year it spent $1.3 million on scholarships for its 268 students.

All of which is intended to assist in turning the school’s provisional ABA accreditation to full accreditation — goal date: 2017.

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Here’s hoping that in these stagnant times UMass is able to pull off the trick. The school fills a vital need in legal education. (Spoiler alert: it has NOTHING to do with Biglaw.)

The law school was created with a noble mission: To make a doctor of laws degree affordable, and to educate people who will use their degrees to help people who direly need legal services.

Bilek calls it “making sure that not only people born with silver spoons in their mouths are making the law.”

It’s a surprisingly radical notion — decrease student debt so that graduates are financially able to assist in communities that are underserved. Let’s just hope it works.

Deficit mounting, UMass Law cuts size of incoming class [Boston Globe via Morning Docket]

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