Legal education’s slump hasn’t stopped a small boom in construction on campus. Four northeastern U.S. law schools have opened multimillion-dollar facilities within the past month, and more are being planned or built elsewhere across the country.
Deans at the schools acknowledged it’s a curious time to invest in new facilities, given slumping enrollment and legal hiring, but said the projects were needed and planning predated those trends. Fordham University School of Law began developing the plan for its Lincoln Center campus in New York City in 1997, dean Michael Martin said. Its previous home opened in 1961 and was too small — the admissions office, clinics and international programs overflowed into nearby buildings. “The [American Bar Association] would say, ‘Fordham, you have a great program but your facility is cramping it,’ ” he said.
