Law School Discussion

Last week the Associated Press reported on the U.S. Department of Defense awarding a $1 million grant to St. Mary's University School of Law to research the Freedom of Information Act(FOIA) statute.  According to the Associated Press, some of the revisions will address the need to prevent terrorists from getting information from the federal government about electricity, sewer and water, and transportation systems. Dallas Morning News, 7/7/06. 

FOIA was enacted in 1966. FOIA allows requestors to get information from the federal government within specified timeframes. The original aim of FOIA was to ensure an "informed citizenry." Although individuals use FOIA to get information, many businesses also use FOIA to get information about other businesses. A wide variety of individuals and entities make requests for information from the federal government. Some of these requests can mean thousands of copies of documents. There is an obvious economic cost to government in terms of workload to respond to these requests. 

Open government proponents expressed some concerns this week regarding the project to draft a model FOIA statute. The Austin-American Statesman ran an editorial to that effect.  However the research seeks to determine how the spirit of FOIA – facilitating information's free flow – may have been compromised by new state laws. Several major newspapers also reported on the project.

The results of the February 2006 Texas Bar Exam for the first-time takers from Texas law schools are as follows:

1. Baylor        97% of their class passed
2. UT            92% of their class passed
3. SMU           89% of their class passed
4. Tex Wes       83% of their class passed
5. St. Mary's    81% of their class passed
6. U of Houston  79% of their class passed
7. South Texas   78% of their class passed
8. Tex. Southern 77% of their class passed
9. Texas Tech    74% of their class passed

SAN ANTONIO--St. Mary's University School of Law ("StMU-Law"), San Antonio's only ABA accredited law school, is generating renewed excitement among its students and alumni.  The results for the July 2004 Bar show the first-time taker Texas bar passage rates as follows: 1) UT Austin 92.04%  2) Baylor 91.92% 3) SMU 87.84% 4) UH 85.65% 5) Texas Tech 83.95% 6) St. Mary's 79.87% 7) South Texas 69.6%  Wesleyan 62.6% 9) Texas Southern 52.43% .

A concerted effort among StMU-LAW's alumni, students and the administration has raised the school bar passage rate to eighty percent, landing right at the demarcation point between schools above the statewide average and those below.  The school's plan to raise its scores is clearly working.  Coming in two years ahead of schedule, this key goal has already been achieved. All indications point to increased scores in the near future.

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with this guy, but I thought he made some interesting points about the modern legal educational system.



http://www.blogdenovo.org/archives/001042.html

There were several posts about this a few months ago. The Texas Legislature just concluded without passing the legislation that sought to create a new public law school at the University of North Texas--Denton.