President Barack Obama has suggested a new idea to help combat the high costs of law school tuition — but some in the UNC School of Law remain unconvinced.
Last week, Obama suggested in a speech at the State University of New York at Binghamton that law schools in the United States should consider becoming two-year institutions instead of three, in an effort to make higher education more affordable.
But some faculty and administrators have mixed feelings about the president’s ideas.
Jack Boger, dean of the UNC School of Law, said he believes Obama’s comments stemmed from seeing the difficulty of placing law school graduates in jobs and the high costs of legal education.
“I suppose that the president’s suggestion that law school be only two years could affect positively that sort of problem,” Boger said.
But he said UNC law faculty are paid less than faculty at other top-ranked programs in an effort to provide quality legal education at an affordable price.
He said UNC’s program has not significantly raised tuition — while other public law schools such as the University of California at Berkeley have increased tuition by as much as 50 to 100 percent in recent years.
Boger said he would not advise trimming the curriculum for law students because clients already express concern at paying high costs for legal counsel from a first-year law graduate.
“Law firms are telling us they can’t get clients to pay bills on people that have had three years of experience. It’s going to be odd to say if they only have two years of experience, clients are going to be much happier,” he said.
