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8. William H. Bowen School of Law
- University of Arkansas Press
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Chapter Eight William H. Bowen School of Law Arkansas is unique in that it is the least populous state in the nation with two state-funded law schools. Formal legal education began in Little Rock in 1868 with the formation of the “Little Rock Law Class,” a group of young men who studied law together at night in the capital city. Logic dictates that a law school should be located near the state’s seat of government, so when the University of Arkansas established a law school in the 1890s, it did so not on the school’s Fayetteville campus, but in the state’s capital. Soon, however, disagreements over funding—or the lack thereof—arose between the law school and the university administration and after a few years, the law school broke away from the university and became an independent school. It was administered for decades by Dean John Carmichael and, although its name became the Arkansas Law School, many thought of it, and referred to it, as the Carmichael School of Law. The Fayetteville campus continued to grow and in the 1920s established another law school. Fayetteville offered a day program, as opposed to the night school in Little Rock, and the school was accredited by the American Bar Association—a distinction that became even more important over time. In Little Rock, many of my fellow members of the Bar and I became convinced that the capital city needed an accredited law school. In 1967, the Arkansas Law School graduated its last class and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville opened an evening-only campus in Little Rock. The program grew quickly, as did the desire for a day program. In 1974, the Arkansas 163 BOWENrevisedpages.qxd:Layout 1 2/6/08 4:00 PM Page 163 General Assembly ended the Little Rock campus’s affiliation with Fayetteville and instead, joined it to the new University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Like Fayetteville, the new UALR Law School enjoyed both American Bar Association accreditation and membership in the Association of American Law Schools. It fulfilled the pent-up demand particularly of nontraditional students who, for various reasons, could not relocate to Fayetteville for three years to attend law school. As a result of Bar influence, the new law school placed more of an emphasis on skills teaching than legal theory, which was the norm at the time. By 1990, the UALR Law School was seeking a new dean to replace Lawrence H. Averill, Jr., who had resigned to take the position of administrative assistant to Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the United States Supreme Court. Long-time faculty member Fenton Adams served as acting dean for a year while the law school searched for a replacement. The dean search process is one that often mystifies and confounds people who have never served on faculties. In almost all cases, a dean search committee is formed, chaired by a senior faculty member and comprised mainly of law faculty, with perhaps a university administrator, one or two alumni, and one or more law students as members. The search process is nationwide; announcements of the position are sent to all ABA-accredited American law schools and are advertised in various legal and academic publications , such as the Chronicle of Higher Education and the American Bar Association Journal. This process encourages outsiders to apply. Indeed, local applicants are often disadvantaged because they are known to the search committee and faculty and thus their weaknesses are evident, unlike outsiders who present only a positive face through their résumés and references. As with most dean searches, different factions on the faculty wanted different strengths in the new dean. Some people thought that the next dean should be a scholar who by example would encourage and promote increased scholarship at the law school. Others argued that at this point in the school’s history, a fund-raiser was needed to build endowment in order to strengthen the school’s programs. During 1990–91, a nationwide search narrowed the field to one candidate, John Makdisi, a faculty member at Cleveland State University. After a lengthy negotiation with the UALR administration, however, he turned down the offer. Makdisi was the archetypal scholar-dean, with a strong academic background and a long list of publications. Once again, during 1991–92 the dean search committee conducted a nationwide search for a dean. This time the voices urging that a 164 / WILLIAM H. BOWEN SCHOOL OF LAW BOWENrevisedpages.qxd...