An Alaskan Law School: Is it feasible?

Abstract

Responding to a request from the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) alumni, the UAA provost asked the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) to investigate the need for a law school in Alaska. Alaska is the only state that does not have a law school. The question of whether to establish a law school in Alaska has been discussed for more than thirty years. In 1974, the University of Alaska, in conjunction with the Alaska Legislative Council, commissioned a feasibility study for an Alaska law school.In May 1975, John Havelock, then director of Legal Studies at the University of Alaska, issued a report, Legal Education for A Frontier Society: A Survey of Alaskan Needs and Opportunities in Education, Research and the Delivery of Legal Services. The report is 240 pages and is very broad in scope. In this study, almost thirty years later, we revisited the question of the feasibility of establishing a law school in Alaska and came to the same conclusions. There is still no need to increase the supply of lawyers by establishing a law school in Alaska. The state can meet the legal education needs of its residents by increasing its financial support for students who go outside to law school and by establishing cooperative programs with existing ABA accredited law schools.