March 29, 2024

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Penny-pinching alumni, high tuition are issues in USC law school dean search

A search is underway for a new dean of the University of South Carolina law school, but whoever is chosen will confront a host of problems.

The problems include alumni who don’t give to the school, a sizable debt — around $40 million, according to news reports — for the still-unpaid for, new $80 million law school building, lack of diversity and high tuition that drives otherwise able students away. The law school is the state’s only public law school and its major institution for training lawyers.

However, with the law school’s current dean, Robert Wilcox, making $281,917 year, and his replacement likely to get more, the new dean will be well compensated for any headaches. The current median household income in South Carolina is about $52,000, according to Census data.

The school’s money woes were paraded this week in a virtual interview with law school dean candidate William Hubbard, 68, a USC board of trustees member who some believe has the inside track on the job of the four finalist candidates.

On Wednesday, lawyers around South Carolina and a sitting federal judge questioned Hubbard for 50 minutes.

But Hubbard, a Columbia lawyer, gave a brief speech first.

“Our percentage of alumni who give to this law school is dramatically less than it should be — among the poorer percentages in the country,” Hubbard said. “We really need to think of a strategy to make sure more of our alumni give back. … We need everybody to participate even if it’s at a minimal level.”

Another financial issue is finding “some stopgap money to at least get through this year” for fully funding the law school, Hubbard said.

The law school now gets a “subsidy” of about $7 million each year from USC, and “one of the new challenges of the new dean is … to protect that,” Hubbard said.

The law school’s endowment is only about $19-20 million, which is insignificant in comparison with many other law schools, said Hubbard. (Hubbard’s endowment estimate could not be independently confirmed. School dean Wilcox could not be reached despite repeated efforts.)

Federal Judge Michelle Childs asked Hubbard since each law school class graduates about 200, and only about 50 of that number are highly sought after for top legal jobs, what were his plans for the remaining 150 graduates to try to get them good jobs?

Hubbard replied that the overall quality of USC law school grads is “excellent” and he would depend on people like Judge Childs “to get the word out” that not only the students with the top grades were worth going after.

“If I were dean, I would want to have some direct conversations with some of employers in the state, law firms, judges and others,” said Hubbard, conversations that would stress that “holistic” nature of various students and communicate “the potential of that student.”

Hubbard, a former president of the American Bar Association who has won support from the S.C. General Assembly numerous times for re-election of the USC board of trustees, stressed his political and legal connections would be great help if he were dean.

His connections would likely get some employers to “take a flyer” and gamble on a law school graduate with less than stellar grades, Hubbard told Judge Childs.

A top priority would be to further diversify the student body of approximately 600 and that will require more scholarship money, Hubbard said. Scholarship money would go to students on merit, but also to those from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve greater racial diversity, he said.

Tuition at USC’s law school is $24,000 a year (in-state), more expensive than many other law schools, and many worthy potential students have trouble paying that, Hubbard said. That price tag should be offset with more scholarships, he said.

Mentioning U.S. News & World Report’s low ranking of USC law school, Hubbard said 40% of the ranking is based on peoples’ subjective evaluations and only a small percentage on academics. In immediate past years the law school has ranked as the 91st and 96th best law school in the nation. (The school’s rank has gotten worse since 2017, when it ranked 87th, according to news reports.)

“What I might bring to the table as dean would be to take advantage of my national network of relationships at other law firms to make pitches and call them up and say, ‘Hey let me talk to you about this law school, how good it is, and let me introduce you to some of our faculty members who are doing world-class work,’ ” Hubbard said. “We are basically a secret on the national scale.”

To increase diversity, Hubbard said, the law school should increase outreach to potential students and have them come by the school and make sure they see “a welcoming environment.” A law school’s student body must reflect the state’s diversity, or lawyers and judges won’t be representative of the state, he said. Proper diversity “is a moral imperative,” he said.

Hubbard, a member of the Columbia firm of Nelson Mullins, which has more than 800 lawyers and other professionals, said it’s not a drawback that he hasn’t been a law professor. “I think what a lot of students are looking for is a perspective on what it’s like to practice law, and I’ve been an active practitioner for many, many years.”

Hubbard also:

Expressed support for an Innocence Project, where lawyers work to free wrongly convicted persons. “I don’t know what’s controversial about helping people who are innocent get out of jail.”

Said he would be a “leader” in working to increase the school’s revenue base, resources and visibility.

Said faculty hires of recent years have been impressive. “All in all, you should be proud of your law school,” Hubbard said.

He added that short-term, “The real problem is how do we get through COVID” and not lose “a year of education for the next generation of lawyer-leaders in our state.”

He predicted that in the upcoming fall semester, not as many students will be allowed in the law school at any one time as in past years, and “some classes will be in person, with social distancing,” and others will be held virtually.

Other law school dean candidates were also scheduled to be interviewed remotely. They are:

David Thronson — a 1994 Harvard Law graduate and international human rights professor at Michigan State University College of Law. A Peace Corps veteran who served in Nepal and former public school mathematics teacher, he is also director of a center there for human rights of children and women.

Susan Kuo — the USC law school associate dean for diversity and inclusion, who has won teaching awards and has taught criminal law, criminal procedure, federal courts and law and social justice classes. A graduate of Duke University and Vanderbilt Law School, she has clerked for a federal appeals court judge and worked as a special assistant U.S. Attorney in Atlanta.

Joel Samuels — a USC law professor and director of the law school’s Rule of Law Collaborative, which oversees law development around the world. A Princeton graduate, he graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and has specialized, among other areas, in international law.

Hubbard graduated from USC in 1974 and from the USC law school in 1977. He specializes in business litigation.

Although the law school is a major public institution, university officials refused to allow a journalist to listen in to Hubbard’s interview. But a State newspaper reporter gained remote access anyway.

A decision on who the dean will be is expected in a few weeks. USC’s provost will make the decision based on a recommendation from a search committee.

A USC spokesman said despite the law school’s overall lowish ranking, the school has top-50 nationally ranked programs in trial advocacy, clinics, legal writing and environmental law. The school has 54 full-time faculty, including nine library faculty. Eighty-one percent of grads pass the bar exam on the first try, he said.

To avoid a conflict of interest, Hubbard has taken a leave of absence from all board of trustees activities until a new dean is chosen, a spokesman said.

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