Sep. 28, 2013

Law deans discuss controversies

Deans from half a dozen Southern California law schools offered insights into current legal education controversies at a dinner meeting of the Italian-American Lawyers Association last week. Over the last several years, critics have assailed law schools over high tuition and student debt at a time of reduced employment opportunities for new lawyers. The six deans gave brief talks about those and other issues. The deans were generally upbeat about what's ahead for schools and graduates — "I'm totally optimistic," said Pepperdine University School of Law Dean Deanell Reece Tacha — but not entirely. "I think you're going to see some law schools fail, but very few," Austen L. Parrish of Southwestern Law School told the bar group. One reason tuition has increased twice as fast as inflation, according to Robert K. Rasmussen of USC, is the growth in clinical and other skills-focused programs, which are more expensive than large lecture classes. Loyola Law School Dean Victor J. Gold said he has seen "more change [in legal education] in the last five years than in the last 20." But he also said U.S. News and World Report rankings put great pressure on law schools to spend more. "You could take a bale of $100 bills and burn them in the quad and improve your score," Gold said. One point nearly all the deans made was that they want help from the legal profession. "You need to help us train [new lawyers]," Tacha said. "You can't rely on the law schools." Gold added, "We depend on the practicing bar to work with us to improve the situation." — Don J. DeBenedictis