UNH Law (Or Franklin Pierce?) Picks Justice As New Dean

This fall, Franklin Pierce Law School entered an affiliation agreement with the University of New Hampshire and changed its name .  Now the University of New Hampshire School of Law has chosen John Broderick to lead the institution.  Broderick is the outgoing Chief Justice of New Hampshire's Supreme Court.   He is a University of Virginia law graduate and was in private practice before joining the Court.

This is an interesting choice for the school.    Broderick was presumably selected for his stature within the state bar (though, as the press release notes, he has been active nationally around issues of judicial modernization and he co-wrote a New York Times op-ed this year.)   But it seems like UNH  missed an opportunity to signal its move towards both a higher national academic profile and an intensified commitment to scholarship.  I'd assumed these were among the goals of the merger.

As I pondered  this choice, I noticed an interesting aspect of the merger outlined in the school's FAQ's:


During the period of affiliation, the UNH School of Law will be governed by a board of 30 trustees as well as the presidents and chief financial officers of both institutions. The composition of the board will change each year, shifting from a Franklin Pierce Law Center majority to an equal balance of UNH-appointed trustees and Law School-appointed trustees by July 1, 2014.

Justice Broderick may turn out to be an excellent leader of UNH Law.  But I wonder if a UNH controlled Board would have made the same decision.

Comments

[Tom]

Sometimes I wonder if you academics realize that it is students who pay your salaries. And we could not care less about your "scholarship", which no one reads, besides other professors. This is an excellent choice for the school and the students. Maybe the school doesn't want "an intensified commitment to scholarship", but rather wants to graduate students with some real, practical skills, and with a chance to get a job in NH.

[christian louboutin]

Each moment in history is a fleeting time , precious and unique .

[Maren Lee]

"...higher national academic profile and an intensified commitment to scholarship. I'd assumed these were among the goals of the merger."

I assumed that was the point of their affiliation too. But with this move toward more NH academic inbreeding it's clear any supposed continuing support for their IP focus is a sham. What this new UNH Law is going to become is a school for those who want to practice in NH and nothing else. I don't know much about that region but something tells me that market for lawyers is not very big. RIP FPLC.