Group wants new law school
Sanders, others are working to establish a private institution in Charleston

Columnist
April 10, 2003

A group of lawyers and judges headed by former College of Charleston president Alex Sanders is taking steps to start a private law school in Charleston.

The school, which would be the state's second law school, would seek students who want to use the law to provide public service and help the underprivileged - instead of seeking those whose focus might be to join a large law firm or work for major corporations, Sanders said.

"South Carolina has only one law school, and there are many qualified applicants that it is unable to take," said Sanders, speaking of USC's School of Law in Columbia. He estimated the number of qualified students who are unable to get into USC's law school and who want to go to law school in South Carolina to be at least several hundred.

Sanders said a target opening date for a first-year law class of 120 students is fall 2004. The school's yearly tuition would be in the $18,000 range - about $10,000 more than USC Law School's base tuition.

If established, the law school would be the state's first new major private graduate education institution in decades.

When fully operational in 2008, the new school would have about 450 first-, second- and third-year students, compared with USC's law school population of about 670.

Supporters of the proposed law school - to be called the Charleston School of Law - include some of the state's most prominent judges and lawyers, including Charleston lawyer Edward Westbrook, who helped win billions in tobacco settlements from the nation's cigarette companies. Another supporter is Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, a lawyer and longtime Sanders friend.

One judge supporting the new law school is U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge William Wilkins, brother of House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville.

Sanders is a former S.C. Court of Appeals chief judge and a former state senator and has taught law part time at the USC School of Law. Last year, he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the U.S. Senate.

"We're not asking the taxpayers for any help," said Sanders, who described his school as private and "for profit."

The term "for profit" doesn't mean the school will be making a lot of money, Sanders said. It means the school wouldn't be part of the state-supported network of public universities, he said.

Not everyone is excited about the proposed law school.

USC spokesman Russ McKinney declined comment.

S.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal and U.S. Chief District Judge Joe Anderson also declined comment.

But William Hubbard, a lawyer and longtime USC board of trustees member, said the current USC law school is producing all the lawyers the state needs. Also, he said, new lawyers are coming into the state, and not all lawyers can find jobs.

Moreover, Hubbard said, the state's resources are limited, and having two law schools would "dilute" the ability of the existing law school to do its best.

There are no plans to expand USC's law school.

Sanders said he didn't see the proposed law school as competing with the USC law school.

Of six Southern states - Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina - South Carolina has the lowest number of lawyers per 100,000 population, Sanders said.

Florida has 307 lawyers per 100,000 population; Georgia, 270; Virginia, 267; Alabama, 254; North Carolina, 193; and South Carolina, 185, according to a letter Sanders sent to the S.C. Commission on Higher Education.

"Of these states, South Carolina is also the only state offering prospective students only one law school," Sanders wrote. The letter notified the commission of his group's intent to seek a license to operate a private law school.

One group of law students the school would target would be students from S.C. colleges and universities who are qualified but who can't get into the USC law school, he said.

Sanders said it would have been impossible to create a public law school, given the state's tight budget situation.

"You collide head-on with the guiding principle of education today - avoid duplication," he said. "There's no other way to do this except privately."

Any effort to start new public educational institutions is usually accompanied by bitter partisan and geographical wrangling in the state Legislature - fights that effectively stall most initiatives.

Sanders said a second law school should have no trouble attracting students.

The USC School of Law, he said, has more than 1,100 applicants for about 225 places in each year's freshman class.

USC Law School dean John Montgomery wasn't available for comment.

John Smalls, interim executive director of the state Commission on Higher Education, said he is sending Sanders a full application form. The commission, a regulatory agency overseeing higher education except for purely religious institutions, will scrutinize the completed application.

The commission will want to review the new law school's financial backing, Smalls said. The commission must ensure that any new school won't suddenly go broke, leaving students stranded and without transcripts, he said.

Ultimately, the commission will decide whether the new law school can be founded.

Another hurdle a new law school faces is that of meeting American Bar Association requirements for things like its law library. Sanders said the new school would meet those requirements, although it might take several years.