This is pretty big news. After a not-very-quiet extended negotiation, the University of Illinois Chicago is now officially set to acquire John Marshall Law School, creating Chicago's first public law school. This means that the various other private schools in town will now have to deal with a competitor offering state school tuition. The precise level of that tuition is unclear - the current UIC MBA tuition looks to be $21K per year in-state. U of I College of Law charges $35K right now. The leadership at Loyola-Chicago, Illinois Tech-Chicago Kent, and DePaul law schools will be watching that decision closely because competition in the Chicago market is tough already.
Dean Darby Dickerson will continue to lead the law school - and the merger was surely helped along by the fact that UIC's provost is Susan Poser, the former dean of Nebraska Law.
It's all of some personal interest to me. My grandfather, Samuel Holland, received his LLB from John Marshall back in 1915 at the age of 23 - having arrived in the United States only six years earlier. (Click through to read the extended commencement address Sam heard that fine Tuesday evening, as Mr. Rome Brown, of the Minnesota Law School, railed against the judicial recall movement.)
I'm glad to see JMLS do well.
This is a Illinois taxpayer funded bailout of a failing law school. It is a bad deal for Illinois taxpayers. Illinois has 9 law schools, 4 of which will now be publicly supported. NIU is only a few miles away. The market for attorneys, even veteran attorneys is completely over saturated. Illinois has billions in unfunded pension liabilities, a bond rating near junk status, people leaving the State, public debt and underfunded education and we buy a law school? Dumb.
Posted by: Scott Pruitt Edndowed Chair in Enviconmental Justice | July 21, 2018 at 10:09 AM
Scott:
If you review the transaction and look at the public tax documents for JMLS, this is a great deal for Illinois. First, JMLS has a decent endowment. Second, the school has millions of dollars in real estate holdings. Third, UIC did not pay any money for this acquisition. The only question is whether they can lower tuition enough to make the school self-sustainable. JMLS benefits because it instantly becomes the cheapest law school in the city, which could mean better students. NIU is not close to Chicago. It is not a few miles from Chicago. NIU is likely the school who will be most immediately affected because it’s advantage was price. Now, JMLS will undercut that advantage.
Posted by: anon | July 21, 2018 at 12:35 PM
A great deal for Illinois? Us taxpayers will be on the hook for another law school either now or later. So, heat and lights are free? That subscription to West Reporters are free? Salaries? There is not enough work, clients and fees to even justify this. Courthouses at Belmont and Western and 51st and Wentworth are closing. There were a lot of Marshall graduates working those Rooms. Like much in the U of I system, there is redundancy.
Posted by: Scott Pruitt Edndowed Chair in Enviconmental Justice | July 21, 2018 at 01:30 PM
It's a great deal for those faculty! They just upgraded to an institution that won't be hiring people like that in the future.
Posted by: Anon | July 21, 2018 at 05:14 PM
Anon at 5:14 pm.
You hit that nail on the head. The faculty and administrators who engineered this deal go home every night to Evanston, Wilmette, Winetka, Glencoe, Lincoln Park, Bucktown, Glenview, Northbrook while folks in Cairo, Marion, Cambridge, Benton, Mt. Vernon, Danville, Galesberg, Rockford and all the other struggling communities get stuck holding the bag. And we wonder why downstate is pissed at Chicago? Tone deafness.... A LAW SCHOOL--just what Illinois needs.
Posted by: Scott Pruitt Edndowed Chair in Enviconmental Justice | July 22, 2018 at 07:13 PM