A new report from the Pope Center recommends ways to increase the availability of low-cost legal education in North Carolina. It discusses the state’s law schools in detail, using available data about student outcomes such as student debt load and salaries upon graduation.
“Legal Education in North Carolina,” by Andrew P. Morriss and William D. Henderson, reveals that North Carolina has a “substantial unmet demand for legal education.” Signs of this unmet demand are the fact that its law schools are more selective than most law schools in other states and the state has fewer private-sector lawyers per capita than any other state (758/1).
The authors urge the state of North Carolina to remove barriers to entry that make it difficult for law schools to be started. Specifically, they urge the state to announce its own criteria for accrediting law schools and permitting graduates of such schools to take the bar exam. (Currently, only graduates of American Bar Association-accredited law schools are allowed to take the bar exam.)
Morriss is the H. Ross & Helen Workman Professor of Law & Business and a professor with the Institute for Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois. Henderson is an associate professor of law at the Indiana University School of Law–Bloomington.
For a pdf of the report, click here.
