New Calif. law school dangles free tuition

IRVINE, Calif. — A new law school opening next fall in Southern California is offering a big incentive to top students: free tuition for three years.

The financial carrot is part of a strategy by Erwin Chemerinsky, a renowned constitutional-law scholar and dean of the new school at the University of California, Irvine, to attract Ivy League-caliber students to the first public-university law school in the state in 40 years.

Scholarship winners will be chosen for their potential to emerge three years later as legal stars. Only the best and brightest need apply, but the school hopes to offer full scholarships to all 60 members of its inaugural class in 2009.

Subsequent classes will be on a normal tuition basis.

Chemerinsky is convinced the prospect of free education, combined with a public-interest curriculum and the University of California moniker, will quickly fill his first class and land Irvine among the nation's best law schools.

"Our goal is to be a top 20 law school from the first time we are ranked," he said.

Chemerinsky said he has made substantial progress toward raising the $6 million needed to fund full scholarships for his inaugural class.

There are 200 law schools accredited by the American Bar Association, including two new ones in North Carolina. Several others are in the planning stages in New York state, and dozens of unaccredited schools operate across the country.

At last count, 141,719 students were enrolled in ABA-accredited schools.

Rachel Moran, president-elect of the Association of American Law Schools, is leaving her longtime post at the University of California, Berkeley's revered Boalt Hall to teach at Irvine.

She likens it to a "Star Trek" adventure.

"You're going where nobody's gone before," she said. "I feel that it's going to be a remarkable ride."