Lawyers, Schools And Money
Perhaps the most notable thing about the University of Massachusetts’ recent announcement that it will establish a public law school at Dartmouth is its relative brevity.
Certainly, we understand that not every aspect of UMass’ acquisition of the unaccredited and financially feeble Southern New England School of Law in North Dartmouth, is worth noting.
What is worth noting is how readily the university’s trustees have approved this plan, a process that reminds us that if the trustees have proven anything in recent years, it is that they recognize the opportunity for revenue when they see it.
The university’s main argument that it will be able to provide an affordable alternative to private law school is outweighed by opposing arguments that Massachusetts already has plenty of lawyers and the state’s taxpayers have no business subsidizing the education of more of them.
Also, Dartmouth makes almost no sense as a location for the state’s first public law school.
By Degrees
With larger law firms cutting back, and less and less willing to pay generous salaries to subsidize what is essentially on-the-job training for young lawyers, a public school seems to make sense.
But a managing partner at one local law firm told us, “A lot of kids come out of law school every year, probably more than we need as a society.”
In fact, Massachusetts ranks fourth among all states in the number of lawyers per capita at 14.5 for every 10,000 of its about 6.5 million residents. It’s bested only by tax haven Delaware, New York and Washington, D.C., which has 276.7 lawyers for every 10,000 of its about 600,000 residents.
Why should taxpayers be asked to pay for that? This isn’t the kind of undergraduate work that gives students who can’t afford a more prestigious, private institution a fair chance at a decent job in a competitive market. It’s not the medical school, which at least can bear some responsibility to reverse the dire shortage of primary care physicians in the state.
No, this is simply a shot at taking in more revenue regardless of the state’s higher education needs or market conditions.
UMass estimates it will take in $8.4 million in the law school’s first year. Much of that will come in the form of fees. The university expects it will cost about $6.6 million to run the law school in its first year, including $1.6 million to gain the bar accreditation Southern New England Law could not.
The university argues that it will not need money from either the UMass system or the state to run the law school, but that argument has some well-qualified opponents.
Arthur Gaudio, dean of the Western New England School of Law in Springfield and former dean of the public law school at the University of Wyoming, told the Fall River Herald News that the UMass law school would cost the system at least $9.6 million in its first year, $52 million over the first five and $92 million in its first 10 years of operation.
But the school also has some well-qualified and powerful proponents, and we suspect, despite having every appearance of a higher education boondoggle, the state’s first public law school will be established by UMass. But Dartmouth? If UMass was really interested in filling a need, perhaps instead of jumping on the first and cheapest opportunity, it could have considered its soon to be greatly expanded Boston campus, or better yet Worcester, as the school’s home.
Wouldn’t the Worcester Memorial Auditorium and the old courthouse make a fine campus?
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