New Law Schools to Consider

A current client sent me an e-mail this morning inquiring about some up-and-coming law schools and I think it's worth sharing with my readers:

As I'm reading up on different law schools, there are some law schools that are expected to get ABA accreditation as soon as they become eligible and they are affiliated with some respectable undergraduate institutions, which I suppose makes it a safe bet that it'll receive accreditation. The two I'm thinking of are UC Irvine (http://www.law.uci.edu/) expected to open in Fall 2009 and Drexel who are already taking applications (http://www.drexel.edu/law/). What is your advice for students thinking about applying to these law schools?

This is a great question. I've already posted about UC Irvine's law school and I expect many of my clients next year to apply here for the chance to attend a public law school in California. My guess is they'll be wanting people right around the 160s right off the bat, especially with the prestige of their Dean. Orange County needs a really good law school - LA is not a convenient commute. I think it'll hurt Chapman the most - people who have to be in Orange County and have exceptional credentials will probably choose Irvine (public tuition and the automatic prestige of a UC school).

Many of my clients are applying to Drexel this year - I agree that its prospects are excellent since it's attached to a solid undergraduate school and in a city where it's very hard to get into law school without a 160 LSAT score (Temple, Villanova, and Penn are its only neighbors).

Here is information about the University of Phoenix (Arizona's first private law school) It's sister school is Florida Coastal Law School. These are for-profit law schools and will probably always be Tier 4, whereas Drexel and Irvine are stars I expect to rise quite quickly.