Work Begins on Downtown Dallas Law School

adman · March 12, 2015

Construction work has started at the historic Dallas Municipal Courts building, which could become the home of theUniversity of North Texas Dallas College of Law.

The city-owned building was made infamous by the shooting of accused John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

The construction underway is funded from a $14 million city bond set aside about nine years ago as part of the deal to provide a home for a public law school. Another $2 million pledged to the school from the city has yet to be funded.

The city's work on the building entails repairing the roof of the building and addressing some of the deferred maintenance on the property, which will protect the municipal building for the law school to come in at a later date.

"We are very happy to see they are moving forward to protect the building," UNT Chancellor Lee Jackson told theDallas Business Journal."We have a partner that has put significant local funds and really gone to work."

At the same time, Jackson and other UNT leaders are headed to Austin to ask the Texas legislature for $56 million to complete the renovations at the Dallas Municipal Courts building to move the law school from its current location at the UNT System building on Main Street to the adjacent facility. The UNT System has beensearching for the funds for the project for quite some time.

The university system is also asking the legislature for $60 for a library and student success center at UNT's Dallas campus, $80 million for a new research building at UNT's Health Science Center at Fort Worth, and $70 million for a visual arts and design facility on UNT's campus in Denton.

More info here: http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2015/03/11/work-begins-on-downtown-dallas-law-school-building.html

FirefightnRick · March 13, 2015

What a waste of money, time and effort.

Rick

Harry · March 13, 2015

Can you elaborate on why you think this or is it just a gut feel or inclination?

FirefightnRick · March 13, 2015

Can you elaborate on why you think this or is it just a gut feel or inclination?

You read the article and saw the amount of money being blown, right? So considering Bobby Ray and C. Dan Smith both explained to me that our powers that be considered it too expensive to spend $22 Million on an already active, accredited and working Law School that came with a brand spanking newly renovated facility in downtown Fort Worth, everything else from here on is a waste to me.

And, if the unt law school ever does get on its feet, the poor product it's going to put out won't justify the expense. The university will never see a return on investment in any way other than talk that it has a law school.

I hope the legislature shit cans the entire thing.

Rick

CMJ · March 13, 2015

If we were gonna have a law school, I wanted it in Denton. Otherwise F it, they'll have no connection to us.

FirefightnRick · March 13, 2015

If we were gonna have a law school, I wanted it in Denton. Otherwise F it, they'll have no connection to us.

Exactly!!!

Rick

CMJ · March 13, 2015

True story...the NT Library collected law books for decades in case we ever got a school of Law. I wonder if they'll be stored at Willis or get sent to Dallas.

ChristopherRyanWilkes · March 14, 2015

You read the article and saw the amount of money being blown, right? So considering Bobby Ray and C. Dan Smith both explained to me that our powers that be considered it too expensive to spend $22 Million on an already active, accredited and working Law School that came with a brand spanking newly renovated facility in downtown Fort Worth, everything else from here on is a waste to me.
And, if the unt law school ever does get on its feet, the poor product it's going to put out won't justify the expense. The university will never see a return on investment in any way other than talk that it has a law school.
I hope the legislature shit cans the entire thing.
Rick

I may be biased because I go there, but that downtown Fort Worth law school is now ranked for the first team after 1 year under Texas A&M. Shows what a name change can do to a law school. Now unfortunately UNT will be known as the bottom dweller law school in the metroplex, a title formally held by Wesleyan which negatively affected some of our alumni at times.

Sidenote: I'm not a fan either, but I don't think the law school needed to be in Denton. Law Schools need to be in the center of a major city.

FirefightnRick · March 15, 2015

I may be biased because I go there, but that downtown Fort Worth law school is now ranked for the first team after 1 year under Texas A&M. Shows what a name change can do to a law school. Now unfortunately UNT will be known as the bottom dweller law school in the metroplex, a title formally held by Wesleyan which negatively affected some of our alumni at times.
Sidenote: I'm not a fan either, but I don't think the law school needed to be in Denton. Law Schools need to be in the center of a major city.

I specifically remember this at the time we were considering buying Wesleyan's law school that it had one of the highest bar passing rates in the state. So, it was well on its way when we crapped the bed not making the purchase.

Rick

ChristopherRyanWilkes · March 16, 2015

I specifically remember this at the time we were considering buying Wesleyan's law school that it had one of the highest bar passing rates in the state. So, it was well on its way when we crapped the bed not making the purchase.
Rick

It has always had a lot of potential as being a good cheaper alternative to SMU in the metroplex, it just never had the resources behind it. A&M ended up buying it for a lot more than what UNT or even TCU could have bought it for. Definitely dropped the ball on that one, that law schools (and every law school) is a big money maker.