The News and Observer
Report Says N.C. Law Schools Need No Expansion
October 15, 1974
NORTH CAROLINA does not need to expand its capacity to train lawyers even though it has the lowest number of lawyers per person of any state in the country, according to a study released Monday. The report, prepared for University of North Carolina Board of Governors by the Research Triangle Institute, estimates that the state will need to produce between now and 1980 300 lawyers a year and expects 450 admissions each year to the North Carolina State Bar. Even though the state's existing law school's turn away a majority of their applicants, there is no need to increase capacity of the law schools, the report concludes.
East Carolina University Chancellor Leo Jenkins was critical of the report. "Fifteen years ago, the experts told us we didn't need any more nurses, when it was painfully obvious we did," he said. "Then they said we didn't need any more doctors, when it was painfully obvious we did. Now we're being told we don't need any more lawyers - what will come next that we're told we don't need any more of? I can't take these experts too seriously."
The report does not consider the problems of geographical distribution of lawyers or of providing legal services to the poor. Serving the poor or rural areas is a problem beyond [UNC]'s control, John Sanders, UNC vice president for planning said. He suggested that a radical change in where lawyers practice and who has access to them would require a change in the financing of legal services.
Steve Adams, Report Says N.C. Law Schools Need No Expansion, The News and Observer, October 15, 1974.
From the time Dr. Norman Adrian Wiggins assumed the presidency of Campbell College in 1968, he was asked when will there be a law school at Campbell College. A 1974 report prepared for the University of North Carolina Board of Governors from the Research Triangle Institute concluding that there was no need for another law school in the state appeared to dismiss the opening of any additional law schools, despite the fact that North Carolina had the lowest number of lawyers per person in the nation. Despite their findings, Dr. Wiggins saw a need for a new law school, specifically citing the need for lawyers in the state's rural, eastern counties. "Campbell plans to turn out family practitioners of law."
In the classroom of Dean and Vice-President Dr. Alexander Roman Burkot, Campbell College, Buies Creek, 1973 - 1974.
Quote from A Law School at Campbell, The Charlotte Observer, July 23, 1975.
Newspaper clippings in this guide are part of a collection titled Law School History. The articles range in dates from 1974 to 1990. Most are original; however, some are photocopies. Many are in poor condition.
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