Economy, employment concerns stall plans for 3 new law schools in New York

Ambitious plans for three new law schools in New York have stalled in the face of an ailing economy, state government budget woes and doubts about whether there are enough legal jobs to support the new schools in addition to the 15 existing ones.

Proposals have been shelved indefinitely for law schools at the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island and the private St. John Fisher College in Rochester.

A plan for SUNY Binghamton is going forward. However, Binghamton's interim provost said that the proposal faces "serious challenges," and the 2017-18 academic year is the earliest a new school could open its doors, even if those obstacles are overcome.

SUNY's council of provosts has endorsed a Binghamton law school and the plan is now being examined by the central SUNY staff. It still needs the approval of the state Division of the Budget, the SUNY trustees, the Board of Regents and the governor. The school must also meet standards established by the American Bar Association.

"Obviously, money is going to be an issue," said Jean-Pierre Mileur, Binghamton provost, in an interview this week. "Our preference would be that they approve the substance of the plan up to the point where we need the money. It could stall either because of the state's inability to provide us with funding or our inability to raise it."

Nevertheless, Mr. Mileur said, "We still think they can be overcome and we still think the enterprise can be made to pay."

St. John Fisher and Stony Brook have reached the opposite conclusion, at least for now.

St. John Fisher's interest was fueled by the results of a $25,000 feasibility study funded by the college that indicated a demand for a new law school in the Rochester area. The nearest law schools to Rochester are SUNY Buffalo, 60 miles to the west, and Syracuse University Collage of Law, 75 miles to the east.

St. John Fisher, a private Roman Catholic college, received an appropriation of $2.25 million in the 2008-09 state budget for further study of a law school project and for capital costs if needed.

But the college shelved the project and never received the state aid, the school's president, Donald E. Bain, said in a statement.

"The College has not received any money from New York State for the law school," Mr. Bain said. "In addition, in the face of continuing economic instability and the uncertainty of a sustainable market, the law school project has been put on hold." Mr. Bain had estimated the cost of starting a law school at about $26 million.

The Stony Brook project has similarly stalled. The university did not spend $250,000 allocated in the 2008-09 state budget for feasibility planning and a $45 million appropriation for capital costs of a law school is no longer available, Stony Brook spokeswoman Lauren Sheprow said.

Stony Brook and other SUNY campuses are waiting to see how deep cuts to the SUNY system will be in Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's first proposed budget next week. The state faces a $10 billion budget gap for the 2011-12 fiscal year.

As it is, Ms. Sheprow said Stony Brook has moved all program offerings for undergraduates at its Southampton campus to the main Stony Brook campus.

"We have to continue to absorb these [budget] cuts and still provide a high-level education," she said.

'One of the silliest ideas'

Several deans at existing law schools questioned the plans for new schools when they were announced (NYLJ, May 28, 2008).

The deans, including SUNY-Buffalo Dean Makau W. Mutua and Albany Law School Dean Thomas F. Guernsey, wondered whether New York's job market could absorb as many as 1,500 more law school graduates the three new schools could produce each year.

The existing law schools turn out about 3,750 graduates each year, according to the state Board of Law Examiners.

But the state Labor Department has estimated there will be openings for just over 2,000 lawyers a year through 2016 in New York. And law firms have been shedding jobs in the last few years. There now are about 150,000 lawyers in New York, the most of any state in the country.

Mr. Guernsey said the passage of time and the deepening of the economic slump has "just served to reaffirm my belief that this is just one of the silliest ideas."

He criticized SUNY for not obtaining an in-depth analysis of whether there is a need for additional schools.

"The economy is such that it just reinforces the fact that it is more and more difficult for [law school] graduates to get jobs," Mr. Guernsey said.

Mr. Mileur estimated start-up costs of $10 million for a law school at Binghamton, with another $10 million needed each year to keep it operating.

If Binghamton has to construct a building to house the new school, the cost would jump by $55 million to $60 million, according to Mr. Mileur.

One selling point of a public law school in Binghamton would be its ability to offer a good legal education to students at a cost that would be more affordable than private schools, Mr. Mileur said.

Tuition at SUNY-Buffalo, for instance, is $17,450 in the current academic year for New York residents. By comparison, tuition at Cornell Law School is $51,150 and $43,500 at Syracuse Law.

"The debt load has become increasingly important," Mr. Mileur said. "Kids are coming out of law school with huge debt loads and it is sharply constraining the career choices they feel they can make. …I think our ability to deliver a high-quality legal education at half the price [of a private law school] is more important a factor now."

Two external reviewers—Stuart Deutsch, former dean at Rutgers School of Law, and Judith Welch Wegner, professor of law at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill—have advised faculty, students, planners and leaders from the local legal community on implementing a law school plan in Binghamton. Their suggestions have been included in the proposal Binghamton has before SUNY administrators in Albany.

The idea of a law school in Binghamton was endorsed by John R. Ryan when he was SUNY chancellor. But Nancy L. Zimpher, the current chancellor, did not mention law school proposals by either Binghamton or Stony Brook during her State of the University address earlier this month.

(Published by Lawjobs.com - January 31, 2011)