Another New Law School? There's No Slowing This Conveyor Belt!

It seems like every day we hear of yet another law school being quickly erected to solve the drastic undersupply of fine legal institutions to learn at. This time it's the University of Delaware that's looking to get into the game:

The University of Delaware’s board of trustees has given administrators approval to pursue plans to build a public law school. The first class could be enrolled in 2015

The school would be Delaware’s first public law school. It would be on UD’s Newark campus. About 200 students would be enrolled in its first class.

Every time I read of a new law school opening - or even being the figment of some greedy administration's imagination - I fancy myself back in 2006 watching a house-flipping show ("you can make $20,000 just doing some paint touch-up and adding new chairs!") reading about yet another planned suburban shopping mall ("it'll have a Krispy Kreme and a Steve and Barry's!").

Originally, I was surprised to learn Delaware only has one law school (Widener), and only a private one at that; I realize it's a small state, but it's also the default state of choice for high-powered corporate litigation in America, and given their legislatures foresight in catering to the American corporation, one would think they'd have a public institution to help run their judiciary. But I suppose there's enough grads on the east coast to fill whatever need there is, and looking Widener up I see that that place is a two-campus behemoth spitting up 400-500 alumni each year, which is much bigger than I thought.

And the University of Delaware wants to pile on 200 more. Most law schools used to be fairly small; starting out as a 600-700-student factory would have seemed odd. But not in our day, where legal education has basically become a rush to set up the rigged carnival game for the next line of suckers walking down the boardwalk.

Delaware only has about 900k people in the entire state. Something tells me it doesn't need 600 new lawyers a year. Heck, I doubt it needs half of what Widener is spitting out.

Let's hope the University of Delaware administrators come to their senses. That Fighting Hen above won't be so happy when he realizes his degree won't be worth as much as his sweet, tasty flesh in a creditor's oven.