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Proposed UTEP law school is feasible, but would need millions [1]

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Date: 2024-11-15

Paso del Norte region residents who want to attend law school near their home may have their way if the University of Texas at El Paso can access $20 million in start-up funding for the first 10 years and more for a law school building. UTEP officials hope the community can help them.

University President Heather Wilson shared the findings of a feasibility study in public for the first time during a Friday luncheon of the El Paso Bar Association. She said the study determined the need and the niche that a new law school would fill.

The results were based on several factors, including interviews with UTEP and community leaders, market research, surveys of prospective students and financial forecasts. The study was prepared by Washington, D.C.-based Kennedy & Company Education Strategies LLC, a firm that specializes in higher education feasibility studies. It was funded by a $250,000 appropriation from the Texas Legislature in 2023.

“It’s actually more feasible than I thought it was,” Wilson said during a media briefing after her presentation. However, she stressed that the university would need financial help to make the proposed law school a reality.

The university’s next steps will be to speak with local leaders to secure philanthropic and business commitments during the next 18 to 24 months. If the financial support is there, the university will work with the University of Texas System Board of Regents and the Texas Legislature to get the necessary approvals and additional funds.

It is possible that UTEP could make a formal request in 2027 to start a law school and open a school by 2030. In-state tuition is projected to start at $26,000 and out-of-state would be $42,000.

Wilson was confident that the community could help move this project forward and reminded her audience that the university was started because of the philanthropy of El Paso residents and businesses who decided that they wanted higher education in this region more than 100 years ago.

UTEP President Heather Wilson shares the results of a feasibility study for a law school at the University of Texas at El Paso with members of the El Paso Bar Association. (Daniel Perez/El Paso Matters)

Several attorneys present expressed their support for the proposed law school, which has been under consideration for decades. El Paso is the state’s only metropolitan area without a law school.

Janet Monteros said that she is among those who have promoted this idea for 20 years. She said she understood that there are caveats to the plan and many more stages to achieve, but called the study’s results a positive step.

“It’s an ongoing project, but we’re going to get it,” Monteros said.

El Paso native Miriam Cruz called the effort to bring a law school to El Paso an exciting endeavor.

The 2008 graduate of Socorro High School went to Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock because of its proximity to the region and earned her law degree in 2017. She would have preferred to stay home.

While Wilson said that the law school could focus on international business law, and the preparation of bilingual attorneys, Cruz suggested that an El Paso law school might want to include immigration law as one of its specialties. She started her career as an immigration attorney.

“Immigration law is huge here,” Cruz said, adding that an El Paso law school would serve the community if it offered low-cost or no-cost immigration law clinics operated by law school students supervised by faculty. Such clinics provide students with course credit and human relations experience. “It’s an invaluable experience.”

In a prepared release, the El Paso Bar Association stated that the study represented “a major and substantive step” for a new law school as it recognized the challenges to start and maintain that enterprise.

“The study points promisingly to some of the benefits of having a local law school –- opportunities for a legal education for many in our community, increased access to justice and legal services, economic development,” according to the statement.

The association, which is the area’s oldest and largest organization of legal professionals, stated that its 240 members looked forward to sharing its ideas and opinions with the university on this venture.

While there was enthusiasm for the project, the event’s host, U.S. Magistrate Judge Miguel “Mike” Torres, acknowledged that some colleagues had reservations about the need for a new law school.

Wilson said she understood their concerns and initially shared their skepticism. She agreed it did not make sense to graduate students with law degrees if the jobs were not there. The study’s research showed that the legal profession in the region will see slow, but steady growth during the next 10 years.

“There is clearly a need for more legal education in this community,” she said, adding that the study showed that a UTEP law school would meet the needs of the state and the region.

To build a successful law school, UTEP plans to focus on outcomes, including graduates who will pass the bar exam, as well as job preparedness and meeting the needs of the state and the region.

Wilson touched on the need to create a physical space for the law school that would be needed for American Bar Association accreditation. It would require a law library, moot court classrooms and a student study/gathering space. UTEP is studying possible locations for these additions, but believes that existing buildings could be used for some functions.

The university acknowledged that any construction would need funds from the UT System. The estimated costs, to include such things as project management, insurance, legal fees and the like, would range from $66 million to $110 million.

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[1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/11/15/utep-law-school-feasibility-study/

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