It was a good week for …
Texans in need of more lawyers, after Texas A&M University announced plans to acquire Texas Wesleyan University’s School of Law.
The $25 million proposal gives A&M ownership and operational control of the law school, while the school’s faculty and staff members would become A&M employees. Ownership of the building and surrounding land would stay with Texas Wesleyan, who would then lease the property to A&M.
The Fort Worth school would be named Texas A&M University School of Law at Texas Wesleyan University. The plan requires approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. A&M and Texas Wesleyan officials intend to finalize the agreement by June 1, 2013.
Massachusettian law school students, after the University of Massachusetts School of Law announced plans to cap tuition for the next three years. The plan would hold full-time in-state tuition at $23,068 and its full time out-of-state tuition at $30,760.
UMass, the only public law school in the state, opened in 2010 and received provisional accreditation earlier this month. The tuition freeze was announced amid continuing reports that law school applications have remained low nationwide for the second straight year.
The school may need the good news. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, no first-time test-taker from UMass passed the 2012 Massachusetts bar exam. (To be fair, UMass points out that only six first-time takers took the bar exam in February, while most students take the July exam. Last July, 78 percent of UMass first-time test takers passed.)
It was a bad week for…
Non-Harvard law grads who want to become Fortune 500 CEOs, after U.S. News & World Report revealed that of the 46 CEOs to crack the Fortune 500 (498 CEOs), only Harvard Law School was represented by more than three graduates.
A total of nine Harvard Law grads made the 500, followed by Columbia Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, which featured three each. Eight schools had two representatives.
Although only 24 law schools placed graduates on the list, the schools represented were not limited to upper echelon institutions. Four law schools not ranked in U.S. News’ top 100 educated CEOs on the list, including South Texas College of Law, which is not ranked.
