First North Texas public law school proposed for Dallas

[TexasStooge]

DALLAS, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) — The University of North Texas wants to establish a public law school in Dallas, creating the state's fifth such institution.

University Chancellor Lee Jackson was scheduled to announce the UNT System's intentions Monday morning from the steps of the historic Old City Hall complex downtown.

"Everyone that we've spoken to believes there's going to be a public law school in the Dallas area before too long," Jackson said. "It is going to happen over the course of the decade, and UNT's interest in serving this area is consistent and persistent."

University officials' next step is to study logistics and cost of opening a law school as soon as 2008. The Texas Legislature must give permission for those studies. UNT says state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, and Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas, will file bills in the coming session for that approval.

Dallas officials are willing to transfer ownership of the downtown complex, said Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans, but no price has been discussed. He said a law school would fit into the city's plans to rejuvenate that part of downtown over the next few years.

North Texas has two private law schools, at Southern Methodist University in the Dallas suburb of University Park and Texas Wesleyan University at Fort Worth. The nearest public law school is at the University of Texas, about 200 miles south in Austin.

The state's other public law schools are at the University of Houston; Texas Tech University, Lubbock; and Texas Southern University, Houston. There are three other private law schools.

A 2002 study by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board found that North Texas does not produce enough lawyers to meet demand. A UNT law school would give future law students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area geographic and economic access since public law schools generally charge much less than private ones, Jackson said.