Independent Law Schools And The Last Buggy Whip Manufacturer

Are there going to be any of these schools left in 20 years?

colonial-era-carriage-horsesA few years ago, a colleague of ours bet his admissions director which law school would be the first to close as law schools continued to slowly adjust to the hangover from the Great Recession and the long-term structural changes in the legal profession. Both the professor and the admissions director selected different freestanding law schools, each of which had deep and seemingly intractable problems. Neither bet has yet to pay off.

Strangely, both schools selected by our colleague and admissions director survive today. And in the interim, two university-anchored law schools have bit the dust. In 2015, Hamline University more or less gave away its law school to William Mitchell College of Law, a freestanding law school in Minneapolis with former Chief Justice Warren Burger as an alum. Then Indiana Tech announced that it would shutter its recent start up law school for lack of a critical mass of students. On the other hand, legislative pressure seemed to force the University of North Texas to start a law school in a state that isn’t short on law schools, which led to some reports of accreditation woes. There are several law schools running going out of business sales, even if they don’t know it yet.

LawProfBlawg and TempDean are both somewhat surprised that none of the recent closures have involved freestanding law schools. Freestanding law schools have been an important feature of the legal education landscape for the past century. Many started as night or part-time programs including a number of programs that began as part of the YMCA movement. The best of these schools have overcome prejudice and regulatory hurdles to provide quality legal education and access to the profession for many fine attorneys.

Today the ranks of truly independent law schools have shrunk more from absorption by universities than from outright failure. Detroit College of Law eventually became Michigan State College of Law; Franklin Pierce became University of New Hampshire Law; Southern New England turned into University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Law; Thomas Cooley hooked up most recently with Western Michigan University. Rumors abound of more fantasy league law school trades and combinations.

The remaining independent law schools have a number of common features. They tend to exist in major metropolitan areas, have snazzy real estate, recruit pretty good to excellent faculties, but struggle to attract high rankings and sufficient numbers of highly qualified students without throwing vast amounts of budget-busting financial aid at the applicants. This can lead to problems with bar passage and employment that, in turn, raises issues of long-term viability.

What independents have going for them is money and autonomy. Independents don’t have to play accounting games with a Central University over Hollywood accounting rules for overhead and often a second and separate exorbitant profit tax. Plus you get to spend the money any way you wish, unless the outside Trustees smell disaster and put their feet down. The roaring 1990s were probably the peak boom years for smart independent law schools who could make bold Master of the University moves paid for by taking 5-10 more students or starting a new LLM program. But like highly leveraged hedge funds, things can south quickly when the odds are no longer in your favor.

In contrast, university-based law schools outside of some elite group were generally stodgier creatures enmeshed in cumbersome budgetary processes and unforgiving university bean counters who took too much off the top and then off the bottom of tuition dollars, fundraising, and grants. Innovation can fall prey to bureaucracy and sheer perversity. Imagine a world where a law dean cannot transfer $50,000 from column A of the budget to column B without university approval. And then only to learn that the request to delete the $50,000 from column A is approved, but the request to add the funds to column B is denied!

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But it turns out that having a main campus to fall back on in tough times also has its benefits. There are reputational advantages to being part of a prestigious, or at least respectable, university rather than just being Bob’s College of Law. It has long been rumored that Seton Hall’s Law School applications went up more than 25 percent the year the University’s basketball team made the NCAA Final Four. [But still not as cool as being the now incredibly trendy Brooklyn Law School after all those years of suffering outer borough angst.]

There is also some definite benefit to having a built in source of applications from undergraduates at your own institution, assuming they are happy about their college experience. Plus, smart universities supported their law schools during the seven lean years so they can harvest the surplus tuition dollars in the seven good years to follow (See Book of Exodus).

While predictions are tough, especially about the future (thanks Yogi Berra), we think more independents will seek the comfort of their closest law school-less university than will fold their tents. The future belongs to smart innovative law schools, whether university or freestanding, that can figure out adequate income streams from a combination of JDs, LLMs, international students, on-line, non-law students, and innovations yet to come. Schools with elite reputations and those with some other durable competitive advantage will thrive. Those with high fixed costs and inadequate variable revenues will struggle and a few won’t be around when LawProgBlog and TempDean cash in their TIAA-CREF accounts when we turn 90. There will be more fire sales and shot-gun marriages. What baffles us is why otherwise healthy universities want to hook up with truly struggling independents. The university environment can include many positive things, but rapid innovation and successful turnaround artists usually aren’t part of the package.

LawProfBlog and TempDean want to turn around the bet of our colleagues that began this column. Twenty years from now, who will be the survivors and the success stories of the independent law schools? Or will they become quaint relics of the past like the proverbial buggy whip manufacturers? Oh by the way, one buggy whip manufacturer in fact survives quite nicely now serving the adjacent market for horse and show riders. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.


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TempDean is an anonymous interim administrator and professor at a top 100 law school.  Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com if you must.

LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school. You can see more of his musings here and on Twitter. Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com.