John Broderick, UNH Law Dean, Steps Down

Dean John Broderick of the University of New Hampshire School of Law is resigning at the end of next month.  He will lead the law school's Warren B. Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership and Public Policy.  He was appointed dean in 2011.  Jordan Budd was named interim dean for three years.  The multi-year interim dean appointment (which we've now seen at Louisville as well) seems to be in vogue these days.  

Comments

[Tom B]

Not sure why you closed comments for Indiana Tech and not this one. This comment is for the Indiana Tech dean. He must have had very low goals for the school if building a program that attracted only 28 students fulfilled those goals.

Separately, these interim law dean appointments keep power at the central university.

[JM]

The reason they are naming a multi-year interim dean is likely because they got absolutely burned on Broderick's contract. Broderick made something close to $400,000/yr. at a school that has enrolled fewer than 80 JD students during the past two cycles. And, UNH hands out huge automatic scholarships for anyone even near their medians. Practically 10% of this schools revenue is going to just paying their Dean!

[anonR]

I suspect there is more going on with the Indiana Tech dean resignation than is in the announcement. It is unusual for a dean to resign and leave the university without an announcement of where he or she will end up.

[Anonymous]

How much longer will Indiana Tech Law School survive?

[Tom B]

JM, are you saying UNH couldn't find a good permanent law dean for (much) less than 400K? Getting burned on Broderick's contract should just make them be more careful and more frugal in this round on negotiations. But the main reason to have an interim dean seems to be appointing them without faculty consent and removing them whenever the central university see fit. This keeps a lot of power at the central university at a time when law schools are struggling. Law schools with interim deans are unlikely to have a vocal advocate to the central university at a time when law schools are under increasing pressure from their central universities.

[JM]

"But the main reason to have an interim dean seems to be appointing them without faculty consent and removing them whenever the central university see fit."

Bingo! Can you imagine how frustrated central university is? This school must be bleedings millions of dollars (and I mean like $10 million) per year. They probably want full control so that they can wind this school down in the next three years if need be.

UNH in general is under some pretty serious financial strain. Support for the State is dwindling. I bet they are furious that they are paying some silly local celebrity Broadway-style money to run a law school that admits 70 bodies a year. I am sure that part of this is retaliation.

[Chip]

I am not sure of the proper capitalization at this point and whether the lack of capitalization extends to titles. Is it Interim Dean cummings or interim dean Cummings?

[ATLprof]

It is my understanding (admittedly second-hand) that UNH Law "spent" a ton of money (through scholarships and upping their admissions standards) in order to propel themselves into the top 100 in the rankings. They succeeded in that goal. The sustainability of that effort was always a big question. Perhaps that is another piece to the central university wanting more control (if that is what is going on with the interim appointment).

That being said, this is a lot of conjecture on my (our) part. It's difficult to know from the outside what is driving the decision. Perhaps schools such as UNH and Louisville realize it is not an optimal time to recruit deans right now.

[JM]

"It is my understanding (admittedly second-hand) that UNH Law "spent" a ton of money (through scholarships and upping their admissions standards) in order to propel themselves into the top 100 in the rankings. They succeeded in that goal. The sustainability of that effort was always a big question."

If they can only get 70 students per year when they cut their tuition by at least 50% for almost every admittee, then the sustainability of this effort is no longer a big question.

[Calvin Massey]

The conjecture in the comment thread about UNH is all wrong. It may be amusing to speculate without any knowledge, but it smacks of idle gossip. UNH is in good shape. We have made excellent hires of new faculty this year, our students are better and better, we place our graduates in real law jobs at a higher rate than any of our competitors, and our administrative team is first-rate.

[JM]

Calvin, I would not bother to dispute any of your claims expect for the first: "UNH is in good shape." That frankly is impossible. You will likely enroll under 80 JD students for the third straight year. UNH will have about 225 total JD students enrolled during the 2014-2015 academic year, and many of them have steep academic scholarships. Revenue for UNH Law will likely be under $8 million for the year. There is no way any law school can operate on that budget.

This is all a matter of public information and basic logical deduction, so no need for conjecture.

UNH Law pays a single administrator almost $400k/year. That is likely to be over 5% of total revenue. This is robbery of the students, the school and the State. The next person who steps in to a permanent deanship at UNH Law (assuming its continued existence) should be committed to the cost-effective training of future lawyers to practice in the local economy.

[Tom B]

Calvin, you just got schooled by JM. Would love to hear your response, if you have any. Also, I am not sure who you think your competitors are, but your student placement stats are pretty pathetic. According to law school transparency, 16.8% of your students are unemployed or underemployed; 0% of your students placed in federal clerkships; and 11.2% placed in large firms. I doubt your actual median salary for all students, not just those who reported, justifies the cost. Finally, virtually all schools will claim that their administrative and faculty hires are "first-rate" and "excellent," but I doubt you have solid evidence that your hires are better than others.

[aj]

"your student placement stats are pretty pathetic."

Actually, in the national law school employment statistics recently released by the American Bar Association, UNH Law ranks 3rd in New England and 29th in the country in placing its graduates in full-time, long-term positions requiring bar admission. Of the 15 ABA-accredited law schools in New England, only Harvard and Yale had higher placement rates.

Menwhile "[UNH] should be committed to the cost-effective training of future lawyers to practice in the local economy" and "0% of your students placed in federal clerkships" seem rather inconsistent as criticisms...

[Mink]

What is the basis for the assertion that Broderick was being paid $400,000 per year? I have not found that reported anywhere. Given that he was CJ of the NH Suprene Court with a judicial salary of $148k or so, a jump to $400k seems unlikely.

[anon]

aj

To be fair, you've made some good points.

Others have too.

Overall, the picture is mixed and, on balance, in such instances, the benefit of the doubt should influence any decision about shuttering UNH.

Reading all the comments, UNH does NOT appear to be a candidate for any harsh sanctions.

However, on balance, I'm not sure that wrenching away power from law faculties is a bad thing. It might appear that way to law faculties, but, that shouldn't be the standard by which such matters are evaluated.

[Public Filing]

"What is the basis for the assertion that Broderick was being paid $400,000 per year?"

According to New Hampshire Law's 2012 IRS 990 filing, Broderick was paid $325,240 in base compensation, $21,728 in retirement and other deferred compensation, and $4,611 in nontaxable benefits, for a total compensation figure of $351,579.

[JM]

Menwhile '[UNH] should be committed to ' and '0% of your students placed in federal clerkships' seem rather inconsistent as criticisms..."

A. They have from different authors.

B. New Hampshire has a Federal District Court and a Bankruptcy Court.

[Former Editor]

"B. New Hampshire has a Federal District Court and a Bankruptcy Court."

In fairness, it can be extremely difficult for a school to place students in federal clerkships unless they have alumni on the bench who take term clerks or are in a position place interns who can impress their way into a job. Perhaps partly as a function of the school only being founded in 1973, UNH doesn't have any article III alumni or any bankruptcy alumni. I don't know what their intern situation is, but the bankruptcy court isn't in Concord, so the "cornered market" for interns effect probably doesn't benefit them in that regard. More, of the five article III judges in Concord, two are senior (which frequently means a permanent clerk rather than term clerks and no interns).

[John Greabe]

Two members of the UNH Class of 2014 have federal district court clerkships beginning in the fall of 2014. Another member of the UNH Class of 2014 has a clerkship on the New Hampshire Supreme Court, and several students will clerk on the NH Superior Court. Four of the five U.S. District Court judges for the District of New Hampshire have permanent clerks, and two of those four are UNH Law graduates.

UNH Law is a very small school located in a geographic area where it competes with Harvard, Yale, BU, BC, etc. to place students in clerkships. It is more than holding its own, to the extent that this metric tells one anything about the quality of the legal education one receives at UNH Law.

[ATLprof]

UNH's faculty hires over the last couple of years have been impressive from what I have seen.

I would also point out that UNH's JD program is not the school's only significant source of revenue, from what I can discern. So simply looking at the number of JD's is not enough to measure what the school's revenues look like.

And I suspect that they could up their JD numbers if they were willing to drop their entrance qualification numbers a little. In other word, they probably have the ability to raise the number of JD students they have if they feel it necessary. They've raised those entrance qualification numbers quite a bit over recent years.

Given all of that, I certainly did not mean to imply that the school was in any way "in trouble."