The number of law schools in the United States has been shrinking in recent years, but Louisiana could buck that trend with the addition of a fourth law school in the state.

Lawmakers in the Pelican State this week approved a $100,000 feasibility study of a new law campus in the Shreveport area, which officials say is underserved when it comes to access to legal education. The proposed new campus would be part of Southern University, a historically black, public university that already operates a law school about 250 miles away in Baton Rouge.