Law School Readying Itself
for 2004 Opening
By Rachel C. Stanley
Lynchburg News and Advance
Sunday, October 5, 2003
The faculty are in place and the students are on the way, so the only thing
left to do for the new Liberty University Law School is find a place to put it.
“We’re on schedule in most respects - in fact, things are very positive,”
said Law School Dean Bruce Green.
The law school is on schedule to open in fall 2004, Green said. Four of the six
full-time faculty members and most of the administration and staff have been
hired, and the school has begun accepting students.
Now, the last big thing left to do is figure out where the school will go.
Green is hoping the law school will be located in the 800,000-square-foot former
Ericsson building near the Liberty University campus.
Liberty and the rest of Jerry Falwell’s ministries won’t know for sure what
they can do with the industrial building until the city’s Planning Commission
and City Council vote on a request to rezone it.
If the university is unable to use the building for the law school, it will find
temporary space on campus for the fall semester, Green said.
“We’re not in any kind of peril as far as the space goes,” he said. “The
university will supply us space somewhere.”
Starting next fall, there will likely be between 40 and 100 students at the
school, although the exact number has not been decided.
About 20 students have already applied, and a handful of those were offered
admission, but Green said he expects that most of the applications will come in
between October and June, the official application period.
Once the school has been in place for a year, in late summer 2005, it will apply
for American Bar Association accreditation, Green said.
Until full or provisional accreditation is granted, graduates of the law school
will not be able to take the bar exam or practice law in Virginia, or in many
other states.
Green said the faculty and staff are working now to put in place the
requirements to meet accreditation standards.
“I am confident that the university is committed to doing everything possible
to build an outstanding law school, and gain ABA approval,” he said.
“Preparations for building an excellent law school start from the first day of
your announcement, and we have all the plans in the process.”
So far, Green said, he has been pleased with the responses he has gotten to the
school, which received almost 150 applications for six full-time faculty
positions.
“What has been surprising has been the breadth of the interest in the law
school - we have had interest from literally international sources, from all
over the United States and from several countries in Africa and Brazil,” he
said.
Of the four full-time professors hired so far, only one is from Virginia -
Lynchburg attorney Jory Fisher, an assistant public defender.
“Our faculty is from all over the United States and we are talking to a
prospective member from South Africa, so it is a diverse faculty with diverse
interests,” Green said.