Law school may expand – or move – to Boise

BOISE – Faculty members and officials with the University of Idaho’s College of Law are considering ways to increase the college’s presence in Boise.

Dean Don Burnett said all options are on the table – including moving the entire college from Moscow to Boise. But simply opening a second location or smaller institutes in the capital city may be a more likely option, he said.

“The University of Idaho does have the mission of providing statewide legal education as prescribed by the State Board of Education,” Burnett said. “Our discussions have been in pursuit of the development of ideas of how we fulfill that mission.”

Boise is the home of the Idaho Supreme Court, the state’s Court of Appeals and the Idaho State Bar Association. College officials have been talking about increasing the school’s presence in Boise for several years, but now – with the college starting its second century in 2008 – the time is ripe for a decision, Burnett said.

Faculty members are expected to send a proposal to University of Idaho administrators sometime this fall, and the university could make its recommendations to the State Board of Education shortly after.

The proposal could dovetail nicely with a proposal by the Idaho Supreme Court to expand and move the court’s law library, Burnett said.

In its capital budget request this year, the state’s highest court asked lawmakers for a new Idaho Law Learning Center that would allow the State Law Library to move to a larger location from its spot in the Supreme Court building.

The learning center would also provide classrooms that could be used by the expanded College of Law as well as by the state judiciary for public education projects.

Construction of such a center would cost an estimated $23 million, according to the Supreme Court proposal.

“It would be in conjunction with the law school, not replacing the law school in Moscow,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald Schroeder said. “It could allow, perhaps, students in their third year to study here, intern with the firms in the valley and to have access to our facilities.”

There’s demand in Boise for a place to earn law degrees, Burnett said.

“If Idaho’s public law school charged with that statewide mission does not address it adequately, there’s always the possibility that a private school could come to the valley,” he said.

Private law schools generally charge between $25,000 and $30,000 a year for tuition, Burnett said, compared with Idaho’s roughly $10,000 yearly tuition.

Because of the higher cost, graduates of a private law school might not be able to afford to take lower-paying jobs in small firms and in the public sector “that are very much needed,” Burnett said.

Enrollment numbers at the College of Law have held steady for the past several years, with about 110 new students accepted out of between 700 and 800 applications a year, he said.

“It’s highly competitive,” he said, “but at the same time we recognize that with the growth of population and other reasons we should consider expanding in the Treasure Valley.”