Law Schools

Law School Will Slash Faculty By 25 Percent To Free Up Funds For Recruiting Better Students

Best of luck to this law school as it seeks out smarter students at the cost of its professors' jobs.

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When there’s been a “seismic shift” in legal education — namely, when fewer law students have been applying for years and entering class profiles at your own law school have become less-than desirable — it’s time to start making some cuts.

Which law school is hoping to reduce the size of its full-time faculty by about 25 percent?

That would be the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, which is no stranger to hacking and slashing its own headcount. Back in 2013, McGeorge Law reduced the size of its staff by about 40 percent. Five years later, and now the faculty are on deck for cuts. The law school’s new dean, Michael Hunter Schwartz, says that with fewer professors, the school will not only be able to reduce costs, but attract “more highly credentialed students.” The Sacramento Business Journal has some additional details on Dean Schwartz’s plans for McGeorge Law:

One of the top goals for McGeorge moving forward, Schwartz said, is to attract the most qualified applicants and maximize the university’s existing resources. Reducing the school’s full-time faculty, he said, will help achieve both of those goals.

McGeorge anticipates 10 or 11 professors will take buyouts, which will free up money to reinvest in student recruitment. After the buyouts, about 28 full-time professors will remain. …

He also declined to disclose specific terms of the buyout packages, but said the packages will be the same for professors across the board.

According to Dean Schwartz, the buyouts will be voluntary, and at this point, layoffs are unanticipated. Professors will have until mid-April to decide whether they’ll take a buyout, and then they’ll have to decide when they’ll go — at the end of this year, after next year, or whether they’ll teach part-time for a few years before leaving.

“We see staying small for the foreseeable future… so we can focus on bringing in stronger students, making sure they pass the bar on the first try and (helping them) get a good job right out of school,” Dean Schwartz said. What he didn’t say is how much funding from the faculty cuts will go towards recruitment of the “more highly credentialed students” the school seeks. Why is there now such an emphasis on recruiting students with better stats? Take a look at what’s happened to McGeorge Law’s entering class profiles since 2010, courtesy of Law School Transparency:

(Photo via Law School Transparency)

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Best of luck to McGeorge Law as its administration attempts to seek out smarter students at the cost of its professors’ jobs. Perhaps this is for the best. After all, a law professor can likely find a job at any other law school quite quickly, but a law student who is unable to pass the bar exam won’t have much luck when it comes to finding a job that pays highly enough to service their outrageous law school debts.

McGeorge School of Law to reduce full-time faculty by about 25% [Sacramento Business Journal]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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