The University of Idaho”s College of Law plans to offer three years of law classes at a location in Boise, a project 15 years in the making.
Mark Adams, dean of the College of Law, said the final installment of the project is the establishment of first-year law classes, which are set to start fall 2017, pending approval from the State Board of Education and the American Bar Association.
“When the law school first started talking about setting up a program in Boise, the original proposal was to add all three years at once,” he said. “For planning purposes, we decided to do it incrementally instead.”
Adams said second and third year law classes are already being offered in the state”s capitol in the Idaho Law and Justice Learning Center, which opened Monday.
“We used to hold classes and conduct business at the Water Center,” Adams said. “Now we”ve moved to the ILJLC, which is an amazing location – it”s an old historic Ada County court house on capitol mall.”
In order to establish a second College of Law location where classes could be offered, Adams said driving members of the project have had to get approval and work with UI, the State Board of Education and the American Bar Association.
Lee Dillion, a UI law professor who has been with the Boise project since it first began, said the college had to work with a number of different organizations and overcome many challenges, such as hiring new faculty members, developing a curriculum and evenly distributing resources.
Despite the challenges, he said the program has grown successfully over the years.
“I was hired back in 2001 to start the Boise effort and it”s pretty amazing watching this program grow,” Dillion said. “We started off with an internship program for credit in Boise and now we”re at the point where soon students will be able to complete their entire legal education here.”
Adams said one of the main reasons for extending operations to Boise is the opportunity to change and improve the legal education of UI students.
“A unique aspect of this dual location thing is the close collaboration we have with courts as well as the State Bar Association,” he said. “You can”t beat the location, we share the ILJLC with the Supreme Court––on one side of the street there”s the appellate courts and on the other side of the street there”s the state capitol.”
Adams said the College of Law”s Boise location helps provide students with more opportunities for internships and interaction with government and judiciary officials.
In addition to working in a more urban setting, Adams said part of what makes the program so unique is the flexibility it provides to students.
“If you really want to do the Native American law program or the natural resources and environmental law programs, those are based up here,” Adams said. “But if you want to do more of the business, entrepreneurship or tax clinics, those things are down in Boise.”
The program would allow for UI law students to move freely between the two locations and students are able to finish their second or third year of law school in Boise or they can choose to return to Moscow.
Although the Boise location provides students with a number of great opportunities, Adams said the biggest challenge is trying to connect two separate curriculums, faculties and student bodies.
“It”s a challenge because we”re not creating a separate law school, we”re just integrating two campuses,” he said. “We”ve invested quite a bit into technology for remote learning and the students are working hard trying to figure out how to create a cohesive student body when you”re in two different places.”
Adams said despite the challenges, he believes the enthusiasm of the college”s faculty and students will keep the program running smoothly.
“Establishing this location has been a great challenge but it”s also very exciting,” he said. “It”s required a lot of collaboration and at the end of it all, we”re providing our students with a one of a kind legal education.”
Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected]