Phoenix Law School is Going Full Time
A new private law school in Phoenix will start its first full- time class this fall, offering an alternative to the UA and ASU law schools, where thousands of applicants are turned away each year.
The Phoenix International School of Law, or PhoenixLaw, started with a part-time spring-semester class of 27 students, including one from Tucson who made the drive three nights a week.
Valerie Agnew, director of commercial customer care at Tucson Electric Power Co., said night classes are the only way she could attend law school.
“The U of A (University of Arizona) is a fine school; they’re just not set up to offer a part-time law program,” she said. “The biggest difference is the flexibility.”
Agnew, 48, took 12 credits last semester, driving back and forth three nights a week, listening to law-school-related materials in her car to partially convert the drive into study time.
After graduating, Agnew hopes to get a new position at TEP where she can apply her law degree.
“At the very least, it’ll help me with what I do,” said Agnew, who also has an master’s degree in business administration from Colorado State University and a bachelor of fine arts degree from Kent State University.
“PhoenixLaw is really making an effort to make students successful. I think that’s part of their philosophy.” Agnew said.
The school will begin a full-time class of 65 to 75 students on Aug. 29. Eight students from Tucson have applied for the fall semester. PhoenixLaw had one of the strongest first classes in terms of academic indicators among any of the law schools started in the United States in the last decade, said Dean Don Lively.
“Whether you can or cannot get into a law school, there are some specific advantages for going to school here,” Lively said. “Our program, our orientation and our focus is on preparing people more effectively for the demands, the challenges, the role of lawyers in today’s market for law school graduates.”
PhoenixLaw is a “second-generation” undertaking for Lively, who also started Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville. The caliber of faculty members he’s been able to attract in Phoenix wouldn’t have even been on Florida Coastal’s radar, which shows the success of the concept, he said.
The school will apply for American Bar Association accreditation at its first opportunity, after the first year of full-time classes. The goal is to achieve approval before the first class graduates. Part-time students typically take an extra semester or year longer than the full-time three years to graduate.
Florida Coastal School of Law started in 1996, received provisional approval in 1999 and was fully approved in 2002. It has ranked as high as second for bar passage rates for Florida law schools and has been at the top in terms of career placement.
Lively said that as the Arizona program becomes more understood in terms of the quality of the faculty and student achievement after graduation, it will become increasingly attractive to new students.
The school has a temporary location in Scottsdale and will be there through the coming academic year, but plans are for a long- term facility in Phoenix.
The UA law school received 2,376 applications for last fall’s class and admitted 471 students; 155 actually enrolled.
At Arizona State University, there were close to 3,000 applications. ASU accepted 620 and 211 attended.
“We don’t know much about the school but understand it meets a legal education need that’s currently not being met,” said Nancy Stanley, a spokeswoman for the UA’s James E. Rogers College of Law. “We know the demand for lawyers in Arizona is growing, and this should at least in part address that need.”
For more information or to apply, go to www.phoenixlaw. org
By the numbers
* Law school figures for fall 2004
2,376 Applicants
471 Accepted
155 Enrolled
2,969 Applicants
620 Accepted
211 Enrolled
* Contact reporter Eric Swedlund at 573-4115 or at eswedlund@azstarnet.com.