ABA Legal Ed council gives thumbs-up to Penn State plan to unify its law schools
Penn State University will have one law school instead of two, as the American Bar Association’s council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar approved the university’s request to merge them. (Image from Shutterstock)
Penn State University will have one law school instead of two, as the American Bar Association’s council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar approved the university’s request to merge them.
Previously, each of its law schools were accredited separately. Penn State Law, based in University Park, is ranked 68th by U.S. News & World Report; Penn State Dickinson Law, based in Carlisle, is 75th, and it will now serve as the law school’s primary location.
While the ABA conditional approval allows the university to teach its first unified class in fall 2025, the plan still needs final approval by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the U.S. Department of Education, according to a news release.
The school plans to admit 200 new law students for the upcoming school year: 125 in Carlisle and 75 in University Park, according to Devan Drabik-Frey, director of marketing and communications at Penn State Dickinson Law.
The consolidation comes two years after university President Neeli Bendapudi recommended the two schools unify to create “significant savings over time” and allow it to maintain an edge in Pennsylvania’s competitive law school market, according to a November 2022 release.
“Uniting the best of both of our existing programs into a single law school allows Penn State to continue realizing [its] mission, empowering our law students, and fostering continued greatness in the study and practice of law,” Bendapudi said in a release.
Danielle M. Conway, current dean of the Dickinson Law, will retain the title at the unified school, which will be known as Penn State Dickinson Law.
Technically, the merger is a reunification. The two schools had operated as one until 2014, when administrators chose to split them up.
