chomp, on 04 February 2012 - 12:48 PM, said:
As much as I love UNT, this article made some very good points. It seems really hard to argue that there is not enough capacity already to train the number of lawyers needed by Texas, particularly given the brutal job market for new law school grads these days. Given the scarcity of resources going to education in Texas in the first place, it seems like there are a lot of other areas where these resources could be better spent than a new law school. I truly do not see how this law school benefits UNT-Denton one iota, which is the only form of UNT I care about. If the law school was in Denton, it could establish links with the outstanding programs that UNT already has in areas like public administration, political science, and business. You see this happen across many universities with their law schools. But the law school won't be in Denton and won't be part of UNT-Denton, so that won't happen. As such, all I can see is a drain on resources that could go to UNT, an unnecessary taxpayer expense, and yet another example of Lee Jackson's general lack of interest and concern for the UNT flagship.
I respect your opinion but I disagree. For far too long we've been that school out in Denton and allowed others to claim Dallas and more importantly the corporate donors to remain detached. We all know that UNT represents a LOT more of the Dallas community than that school by La Madeline does and ever will. The Law school gives us a foothold in the center of Dallas and immediately connects us with a large legal community. I can tell you right now there is talk among the partners and associates at many of the major firms about teaching or getting involved with the UNT Law School...A big component of that is convenience/location. It will be Dallas' only public law school (besides SMU and Texas Weslyan) and that's important because the only two nearby are private and much more expensive.
If you look at the major universities in the state, they have flagship locations (Austin, Houston, Lubbock etc) but they also have satellites. This paranoia that developing a Dallas based school will devalue the flagship or limit resources shouldn't prevent us from trying to spread our wings and expand our footprint deeper into one of the biggest cities in the United States.
I will agree with this, there are lots of lawyers and that troubles me in some respects. I also think a law degree has adapted to appeal to more than just those practicing law, I know talent agents with law degrees, businessmen, real estate developers...the list goes on. The fact is there are still in this bad economy a lot of people getting turned down to go to SMU and don't want to drive to Fort Worth. I think opponents like to point out that there are two many lawyers to serve their own selfish purposes. I don't see them offering to shut down their law schools to deal with this catastrophe. And in terms of SMU and Texas Wesleyan - they are both private school charging private school tuition. I can guarantee you that they aren't excited about another law school coming in and offering a law degree at a lower cost...it's called competition and to me that's a good thing for the marketplace.
Are there risks - absolutely and in my opinion they are risks worth taking. The biggest risk that it poses is spreading ourselves too thin. It's a tough line that you walk. Clearly the safer route is to stay focused on Denton alone and hope that we can develop a typically unsupportive community into bigger and better things. Or we could look at other markets that open up new doors and opportunities. I need to remind people that we didn't just draw the short straw to get the UNT Dallas project...it was a hotly contested battle and there were other systems who were very interested in having the opportunity to put the first state college in Dallas city limits..
The battle for Tier I status is going on and the steps Jackson makes are all built around that goal. I am frankly still surprised that the law school was able to get through the political power brokers who represent cities where the other closest state law school are located, namely Austin and Lubbock. I think it was a major victory for us and am surprised there are so many here that view it as a negative.
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