State education experts say it's not needed, but the North Texas legislative delegation still wants funding for a new law school in Dallas.
Dallas has no shortage of attorneys, and a law school could take tax money away from existing undergraduate and graduate schools in Texas, according to the 2007 Higher Education Coordinating Board Report.
But supporters of the new law school -- and they include just about the entire North Texas business and political establishment -- say it would help cap the city's efforts to revitalize its downtown while providing an affordable place for working students to obtain their law degrees.
“I think there are some people who would say if you have only have a dollar to spend, let’s spend it on science and engineering and math. And I don’t disagree with that,” said state Rep. Dan Branch, a Dallas Republican and corporate attorney who is co-sponsoring the law school bill in the legislature this session. But "when you take a long-term view in a rule-of-law society ... it’s important that you have access to a legal education.”
Branch, a childhood friend of new House Speaker Joe Straus, was appointed last week to chair the Higher Education committee, a plum assignment that could help ensure the passage of the bill.
But critics say a new law school would be a waste of increasingly scarce taxpayer dollars at a time when the legal profession isn't as promising as it used to be
“The notion that you have to have a law school in every city: that’s pork-barrel spending and local pride," says Hugh Rice Kelly, the corporate counsel for Texans for Lawsuit Reform. "America needs fewer law schools, not more. The graduates of existing law schools increasingly cannot obtain employment as lawyers, and the job market today is being flooded with lawyers who are being laid off.
Click here to read more about this year's debate over a new law school and the parliamentary hijinks that prevented the law school's passage in 2007.
The city of Dallas' role
If the legislature passes the bill, the new law school would be part of the University of North Texas system and run by Lee Jackson, the former Dallas County judge. Classes would start in fall 2012.
Though the proposed law school would be largely funded by the state -- to the tune of at least $40 million -- Dallas taxpayers would also contribute. The city would provide the physical structure, the Dallas Municipal Building.
The aging granite and limestone building on the southern edge of downtown used to house City Hall, and later, the Dallas Police Department. (The circa 1914 structure is where Jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963.)
If the law school is approved, court and detention services housed at the old City Hall would be moved.
Last month, the Dallas city council voted to spend $14 million to renovate the building, which floods easily. The city will also tap a separate fund of $2 million in public-private dollars dedicated to restoring the building.
“The reason the city has pledged this level of support is that we feel that every vibrant downtown has a public institution in it, “ says Mark Duebner, the city’s special projects director. “We believe a new law school would help achieve our goal of downtown revitalization.
City officials say they plan to renovate the building regardless of what happens in Austin, but they strongly support a law school in their urban core.
Photo: Old Dallas City Hall, which would house a new public law school if the state legislature approves funding. Courtesy of the City of Dallas.
Contact Matt Pulle at matt@texaswatchdog.org or 713-980-9777.
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Matt
Tuesday, 02/17/2009 - 10:57AM
The last thing we need is another law school -- the market is swamped with lawyers, and any graduates from a new school with no reputation will be in bad shape. Remarkable that Branch and Anchia support this, since Branch's firm, Winstead, is laying off attorneys and staff, and though Anchia's firm, Haynes & Boone, is doing OK right now, their managing partner sees law firms folding in this economy. |
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Jennifer Peebles
Tuesday, 02/17/2009 - 10:59AM
Matt, Welcome to our site. Thanks for reading us and writing in. :) Take care, Jennifer Peebles jennifer@texaswatchdog.org |
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Liana
Wednesday, 02/18/2009 - 09:57PM
Private law tuition is a killer, easily double (and sometimes triple!) the cost of public school. If the Metroplex cares about keeping good lawyers here, this seems like a step in the right direction. |
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Evelyn
Wednesday, 02/18/2009 - 10:33PM
Creating affordable legal education opportunities for under-served residents of this state is far from \"pork barrel spending\". It\'s not some \"bridge to nowhere\" project. It\'s good for the City, it\'s good for the region and it\'s good for the residents of this state. |
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Jennifer Peebles
Thursday, 02/19/2009 - 12:23AM
Liana, Evelyn, Welcome to the blog! Thank you for reading us! Take care, Jennifer P. jennifer@texaswatchdog.org |
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longhorn lawyer 04
Thursday, 02/19/2009 - 01:08AM
texans for lawsuit reform being against something law-related??? that's like peta being against a cattleman's association... |
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Jennifer Peebles
Thursday, 02/19/2009 - 09:08AM
Longhorn Lawyer: Welcome to the blog! Thanks for reading us! |
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Steven
Friday, 02/20/2009 - 01:46AM
please stop acting like going to law school is a right or some type of charity project...if you want to use the oh so tired \"affordable and under served\" argument then please feel free to sign up to have a large percentage of your wages deducted from your check after going to the sure to be extremely low tier UNT law school to pay society back for your charity education and to cover all the \"under served Texas residents with affordable undergrad education\" we can clearly see the motives of dallas in their continued \"support\" for this law school.....it is nothing but a money grab for a horribly run city with a dead downtown to steal education money to try and pump some life into their failed visions.....very similar to the failed UNT-dallas that barely has met twice reduced enrollment projections several years after it was expected to and continues to offer joke degrees and suck up much needed resources please Texas don\'t let dallas steal education dollars yet again from all of out pockets for their failed urban dreams and \"downtown building\" program South Texas College of Law in Houston is larger than UNT law would ever be and it does very little to drive development in Downtown Houston and it has been there for years and is well established dallas already has the UCD downtown that also offered blah degrees just like UNT-dallas and in fact many are duplicate degrees and UNT currently owns a residential building there that they are not meeting projections for number of residents and income even after going ahead with the purchase of that building against the recommendation of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board lets see UNT prove they can deliver something at UCD and at UNT-dallas besides a few BAAS degrees and under performance on enrollment before we go down the same path with them on a professional school to serve a profession that has plenty of graduates already in it if dallas NEEDS a law firm then how about Akin Gump and some of the other big time dallas law firms (Texas hammer where are you!) step up and dump some money into this pork project.....they won\'t because they know what we all do.....this project is not needed, it is a waste, and it is pork wrapper up in wasteful abuses of limited and needed higher education dollars |
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Jennifer Peebles
Friday, 02/20/2009 - 09:36AM
Steven, Welcome to the blog! Thank you for reading us and writing in. Take care, Jennifer P. jennifer@texaswatchdog.org |
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