AB INITIO - THE BIRTH OF A LAW SCHOOL

"What? Another law school in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area? There are already three law schools there. What is the University of St. Thomas thinking?" Those words echoed from many doubters.

Although re-opening a law school received much support from the institutional leaders within the St. Thomas community, these people had the good sense to commission an external feasibility study. They understood that there is often a substantial gap between hunger and viability. There were numerous skeptics who openly questioned whether the Twin Cities could support four law schools. A more thorough examination of this issue needed to be undertaken.

To conduct this study, the Officers and Trustees of St. Thomas were able to obtain the services of one of the best legal professionals in the country. Professor Anthony Santoro, President of Roger Williams College, and a former dean of two law schools had the needed experience and national reputation to give an objective and knowledgeable report.

Dr. Santoro completed an exhaustive and thorough study that examined the pros and cons of the University of St. Thomas re-opening a law school. The resulting report was lengthy and gave serious consideration to many difficult questions – some posed by skeptics within and outside of St. Thomas – and others raised by the examiner himself, based on his years of professional experience.

Can St. Thomas attract high quality students for a law program? Would re-opening the law school benefit society by responding to needs within the legal system? Dr. Santoro cautioned the University leadership that, "It benefits neither the legal profession specifically nor society generally, if the sole reason for establishing a law school is its apparent ability to divert students who otherwise would attend established schools."

One possibility for St. Thomas to respond to a societal need would be to provide access to legal education for a significant segment of the population. Dr. Santoro, after reviewing the operations of the other law schools in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, concluded "no credible case can be made that the law school will open access to legal education for a population not served or under-served." In this section of the report, there is a discussion of the possibility of the University acquiring one of the other law schools in the area and merging the two programs. For a number of reasons, especially the fact that St. Thomas would lose its special mission for its law school, the report recommends that such a merger would not be beneficial to the University of St. Thomas.

Another possibility is that St. Thomas has a strong potential to enhance the delivery of legal services as a law school that responds to the philosophical perspective of the Catholic Church. Dr. Santoro writes that St. Thomas "should create a value-laden program of instruction anchored in the convictions that the program should

1. be accessible to those for whom access is problematic;
2. inculcate in its students the value of service to the public and to the poor;
3. stress the importance of values in the decision making process;
4. build leaders capable of assessing the fairness of the rule of law, nationally and internationally, and advocating its change where necessary;
5. foster research, study and discussion of issues related to the improvement of the human condition."

In addition to actively promoting public interest law, the strong graduate programs offered at St. Thomas would be an extraordinary benefit to a law program. "The opportunity to train lawyers in areas where law intersects with other disciplines… becomes a very powerful added inducement to establishing a law school," according to the study. The University of St. Thomas graduate programs in psychology, social work, business, educational leadership, theological studies, criminal justice and other areas would add a distinguishing characteristic to the re-opened law school.

In addition to analyzing the various pros and cons of re-opening the law school, the feasibility report covered every conceivable consideration relevant to the Officers' and Board of Trustees' decision. It outlined the current and future demand for lawyers in the United States, the local, regional and national trends in law school applications, the accreditation standards of the American Bar Association and the projected revenue and costs for the re-opened program. A developmental plan adds to the completeness of the final report by outlining requirements for location and organization of physical plant, the structure of the dean's office and other administration, the faculty, admissions, other staffing and curriculum. There is also an excellent analysis of the state of morality within the legal profession and the role of law schools in restoring professional values.

The feasibility study concluded that, while it is doubtful that there is a need for another law school in the Twin Cities area, there is a great need for a national law school with a special mission, such as that of St. Thomas. "It is hard to see a higher calling than one which attempts to stem the decline of the legal profession, restore it to its former status and educate it to maintain its traditional role in upholding justice."

The re-opened law school will play a significant role in bringing about social change. The recommendation of the feasibility study is, "that St. Thomas proceed with its plans to establish a law school, provided that it can muster the needed resources and remain faithful to the proposed mission. While the financial costs are high, the rewards to both society and the institution are equally high. Society gains because the law school will produce a cadre of lawyers sensitive to their responsibility to promote social justice in accordance with the Ex Corde Ecclesiae."

This outstanding feasibility study was a principal influence on the Officers' and Trustees' decision to re-open the St. Thomas School of Law. A future article in this series will examine the nature of the special mission of a Catholic law school.

David T. Link
Dean
University of St. Thomas School of Law
posted May 8, 2000

For more information please contact:

University of St. Thomas School of Law
MPL 440
1000 LaSalle Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55403

E-mail: Lawschool@stthomas.edu
Web: http://www.stthomas.edu/lawschool

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