January 25, 2007 - Issue 214

Study Shows:
State Law Schools in Metro Areas Lead in Graduating Minority Lawyers
An Interview with Dean Lawrence R. Velvel, JD
By Sherwood Ross
Guest Commentator

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State-supported universities in metropolitan areas that charge comparatively modest tuition "are playing an invaluable if unsung role in preparing minorities to enter the legal profession," a noted legal educator said today. "We need more efforts like theirs because law school tuition at private universities is skyrocketing."

But Dean Lawrence Velvel of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover added, "The gap remains very great and minorities and working-class whites have got a long way to go before they are fairly represented in the legal profession commensurate with their populations." Of all lawyers, only 4.3% are African-American and only 3.9% are Hispanic.

Commenting on a study of current tuition fees at 189 law schools in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and their African-American and Hispanic enrollments, Velvel said, "It is apparent most private law schools have literally priced students from working class backgrounds off the campus. Law school walls may be covered with ivy but the green pickings that really count are reserved largely for affluent white kids from suburbia."

The study, made for MSL by media consultants Ross Associates of Miami, Fla., is based on figures contained in the 2007 edition of the Law School Admission Council and the American Bar Association(ABA). The ABA-LSAC report includes tuition charged by each law school and other information, including the percentages of minority students enrolled in each school.

Velvel said some private law school tuitions’ have soared to nearly $40,000 a year and students who do graduate "often find themselves with debts that will take them years to repay, discouraging many from working as legal defenders for the poor."

He pointed out that at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla., where the annual tuition is $31,094 a year, only 11.8% of the student body is Hispanic, but at nearby Florida International University (FIU), where tuition is $8,543, Hispanic enrollment is 40.7%. The Miami area Hispanic population is above 50%.

At private Vanderbilt University School of Law in Nashville, where the tuition is $34,036, only 9.9% of the student body is African-American. By contrast, at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where tuition is $9,412, 12.9% of the student body is African-American and at the University of Memphis, where tuition is $9,352, 13.5% of the student body is African-American.

Velvel said that 46 of the 189 ABA-accredited law schools charge an annual tuition of $30,000 or more, the costliest being Columbia University of New York City, which charges $39,172 and has an African-American enrollment of 8.6% and an Hispanic enrollment of 1.6%. "Paying such tuition is beyond the dreams of most middle-class families, much less minority and working-class families."

As for the 90 law schools charging a tuition of $25,000 or more, nearly half of all the law schools in America, "only two of them, Duke and Harvard, have as many as 10% African-American students. "Efforts by private colleges to attract minorities are being undercut by their own high tuition," Velvel added. Law school costs are soaring due to needless ABA requirements "to provide a luxurious environment for law school professors," he asserted. Velvel also faulted State Supreme courts that do not allow educational bodies other than the ABA to accredit law schools, eliminating competition in this area.

"Acting as a veritable guild for law school professors, the ABA frowns on the practice of hiring qualified, part-time lawyers to teach, and attempts to dictate expensive, if not luxurious accommodations for their members," Velvel said. "This pushes up costs and, therefore, tuition." Velvel noted ABA signed a consent decree with the Justice Department a decade ago to stop anti-trust violations but "continues many cost increasing practices to the consternation of law school deans around the nation."

Velvel said if there was an honor roll for law schools charging tuition of under $11,000 that opened the doors to minorities, besides FIU and the University of Memphis, it would include:

Tuitions charged by the 10 costliest law schools in America, and their percentages of African-American and Hispanic students, follow:

(1) Columbia, $39,172, 8.6 and 1.6

(2) Yale, $38,800, 8.9 and 6.1

(3) New York Law School, $38,600, 6.0 and 5.1

(4) Northwestern, $38,372, 6.0 and 5.l

(5) NYU, $38,255; 6.9 and 6.9

(6) USC, $37,971, 9.1 and 2.4

(7) Cornell, $37,812, 7.7 and 1.9

(8) University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, $37,086, 7.9 and 4.8

(9)Duke, $36,574, 10.6 and 3.9

(10) University of Chicago, $36,138, 7.5 and 6.3

Velvel cofounded MSL in 1988 and has been dean since its inception. 85% of its graduates pass their State bar exams, and MSL is accredited by The New England Association of Schools & Colleges. It charges a tuition of $13,300 and was hailed in a Wall Street Journal article as "The Little Law School That Could." Dean Velvel was described in last October’s "The National Jurist" magazine as "one of the most influential people in legal education over the past 15 years." He has been honored by the National Law Journal for his long-term efforts to provide a level playing field in law school admissions for working-class and minority students.

Sherwood Ross is an American reporter who has worked for major American newspapers and magazines as well as international wire services. To comment on this article or arrange for speaking engagements: [email protected]. His blog is The Smirking Chimp. Click here to reach Dean Velvel.

 

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