Penn State is taking the next steps to reunite its two separately accredited law schools into one.
University President Neeli Bendapudi has accepted the recommendations from a 14-member panel of students, staff, faculty and alumni tasked with advising how to best return Penn State Dickinson Law and Penn State Law to a single accredited law school with two campuses in Carlisle and University Park, according to a news release on Tuesday.
The reunited law school — which will require approval from the university Board of Trustees and the American Bar Association — will be called Penn State Dickinson Law, with its primary campus in Carlisle and “a substantial presence at University Park,” according to the release. Each campus will have residential student cohorts at all levels, and class sizes will be optimized over time.
“The panel developed a thorough analysis of the academic, staffing and financial facets of a single law school with two-campuses and presented a compelling vision for a law school that will be innovative in the evolving field of legal education and a leader in training future attorneys,” Bendapudi said in a statement.
Reuniting the two law schools will result in the reduction of some faculty and staff positions, though the university has not provided a specific number. Those reductions will be “pursued primarily through natural attrition over a few years.”
The process is “just beginning,” Bendapudi said, and is expected to take several years as leaders of the two law schools, university administrators and the ABA to move forward with the plans. According to the university, the unified school “will focus on innovation and leadership in hybrid and remote instruction, exploring new ways to provide leading-edge law degrees while exploring new delivery methods, teaching models and offerings.”
Penn State Dickinson Law Dean Danielle Conway, who chaired the advisory committee, said the move comes amid a changing landscape in legal education.
“I view bringing together Penn State’s two outstanding law schools as a crucial step in meeting the challenges facing the legal academy and the legal profession in preparing the next generation of lawyer leaders for society,” Conway said in a statement. “I am looking forward to working with my colleagues at Penn State Dickinson Law and Penn State Law to put this plan into motion and begin the process of building an even stronger law school for our students, staff, faculty, administrators, the university and the commonwealth.”
From 2006 to 2014, Penn State Dickinson School of Law operated as one school with two campuses before being split into separate accredited law schools, a move a university official said at the time would allow them to “more flexibly respond to the needs of law students entering a rapidly changing legal profession.”
In November, Bendapudi recommended that they return to a single accredited school and later established the panel to develop recommendations. Dozens of Penn State Law faculty members signed a letter urging the university to maintain a significant law school presence at University Park
The committee met weekly and in May delivered what Penn State says were unanimously supported recommendations. Bendapudi and other senior leadership reviewed the recommendations and “sought counsel from others within and outside of the university,” before accepting them in late July, according to the release.
Victor Romero, interim dean of Penn State Law at University Park and vice chair of the committee, said he is “excited about the possibilities” for the reunited school.
“This reunification presents a tremendous opportunity for Penn State, leveraging the individual strengths of each existing law school as well as their collective and unique history of remote teaching and learning,” Romero said in a statement.
University leaders will consult with the Faculty Senate as details of the reunification are finalized.
Until the final plan is approved by the board and the ABA, Penn State Dickinson Law and Penn State Law remain separately accredited law schools. Both are accepting applications for fall 2024 admissions.
