Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Alaska gets a law school, sort of; Ky. law school starts program to place graduates in rural areas

Many states with large rural populations are short of lawyers in their small towns. Alaska is a special case,as the only state without a law school. The Seattle University School of Law has announced the creation of a satellite campus in Anchorage that will let students finish their degree in Alaska, Michelle Theriault Boots reports for the Anchorage Daily News.

"The idea is to shrink the time necessary to relocate out-of-state for law school to two school years instead of three," Boots writes. "Students will be able to spend summers and their entire third year attending Seattle University law classes on the campus of Alaska Pacific University starting in 2015. There's no cap on the number of students who could participate, but organizers say anticipate starting with 10-15 per year."

For the past 12 years, Seattle University "has operated a summer program that brings law students from across the country to Anchorage for Alaska-specific law courses and internships," Boots writes. About 60 percent of the 170 students who have completed the program return to Alaska to work. (Read more)

One of Kentucky's three law schools, Northern Kentucky University's Chase College of Law, has begun a regional placement program that "will try to connect law-school graduates with opportunities in small towns and rural areas around Kentucky," Cliff Peale reports for the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Advocates say a lack of lawyers in smaller communities "restricts companies trying to expand or merge, denies civil rights to residents and keeps children from access to basic services," Peale writes. Many lawyer job openings in rural Kentucky often don't get any job applicants, Chase Dean Jeffrey Standen said. He told Peale, "Students today see the bright lights of the big city and think that's where lawyering has to happen." (Read more)

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