Back in February, I brought you the news that William Mitchell College of Law and Hamline University School of Law had signed an agreement to merge together to create Mitchell | Hamline School of Law. The goal of the merger was to help alleviate competition in the region and mitigate the effects of declining law school enrollment over the last several years. Unfortunately, that merger has started to get a little messy, in light of a lawsuit filed by some of William Mitchell’s professors.

One thing that was still up in the air back in February was the fate of the faculty and staff from both of these schools. Officials stated that there would need to be cuts, but they had hoped that most of these cuts would be voluntary.

It seems however, that things did no go as they had hoped. Two William Mitchell professors, Carl Moy and John Radsan, are now accusing the school of proposing “unacceptable changes” to its tenure policy in order to accommodate the necessary cuts in staff to move forward with the merger.

The two professors are alleging that William Mitchell could not find enough faculty to voluntarily take part-time positions or retire altogether as the school had hoped. The complaint says that in response, the school is trying to change tenure code in order to allow the dismissal of more faculty.

In their complaint filed with the Ramsey County District Court, professors Moy and Radsan are asking the court to rule that the school’s attempt to change tenure rules breaches their contracts. They are also asking that the court award them with costs, disbursements, and “further relief as the court deems just.”

According to the suit, the “defendant’s proposed amendment would alter the tenure code so that it would deny otherwise-tenured faculty ‘tenure…defendant would be able to terminate a tenured faculty member without adequate cause …” Essentially, these faculty members could be let go regardless of whether or not they have tenure. This directly contradicts the entire purpose of tenure, which is designed to promote job security. While it’s standard practice at most institutions to let the non-tenured faculty go first, according to Radsan, the Board of Trustees is refusing to do so in this situation.

Currently, the school’s tenure code only allows tenured faculty to be let go if they can’t or don’t perform their job, or if there is a financial crisis. However, according to the complaint, the proposed changes would allow William Mitchell to “terminate tenured faculty, without adequate cause and without declaring a financial exigency, and without paying the terminated tenured faculty member at least one year’s salary and benefits beyond the effective date of the termination.”

They are also alleging that William Mitchell’s president and dean Eric Janus and Associate Dean Mary Pat Byrn had expressed that decisions about faculty cuts would be made with some “degree of favoritism.” The complaint states that “Janus would decide what faculty members would stay or go based on the member’s personal loyalty to Janus, their support for the administration’s policies and proposals, and whether the faculty member had a ‘poor attitude.'”

It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out, what effects it will have on the impending merger, and whether it will affect the likelihood of any other schools getting involved in mergers like this moving forward.

Brittany Alzfan

Brittany Alzfan is a student at the George Washington University majoring in Criminal Justice. She was a member of Law Street’s founding Law School Rankings team during the summer of 2014. Contact Brittany at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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On February 12, 2015, Hamline University School of Law and William Mitchell College of Law signed an agreement that will merge them into one law school. The newly formed Minnesota school will be known as Mitchell | Hamline School of Law, and will be situated at William Mitchell’s Saint Paul campus. Both of these law schools will continue to operate separately until the merger is approved by the American Bar Association.

The merged law school will be staffed by faculty from both William Mitchell Law and Hamline law, and will encompass programs from both as well. The new combined law school will provide students with several programs to get their J.D., including full-time and part-time programs, as well as online and weekend options. William Mitchell actually just launched an innovative new online legal education program, so it seems they will be continuing that program under the new banner. According to William Mitchell Dean Eric Janus, these negotiations have been in the works for months.

According to the Dean of Hamline’s Law School, Jean Holloway, the two schools are combining because their missions are a good fit and the merger will help students gain a stronger legal education. She said, “certainly given the legal education market we can do it better than we can do it alone.”

In their joint statement, the schools announced that the president and dean of the new law school will be Mark C. Gordon, the newly appointed dean of William Mitchell. As of now, it’s unclear what role, if any, current Hamline Law School Dean Jean Halloway will have at the school once the merger is complete.

The impending merger will also have significant effects on the staffs of both of these schools. Officials report that cuts are going to need to be made to accomidate the merger, however, they hope that most of these will be voluntary.

However, one has to wonder if this merger has anything to do with the drastic decline in law school applicants over the recent years. According to the American Bar Association, law school enrollment in the United States is down nearly 30 percent from its peak in 2010, and is lower than it has been since 1973. The American Bar Association has also reported that Hamline’s 2014 entering class was only 90 students, making it one of just 25 law schools in the country to have an incoming class with fewer than 100 students.

In addition to the overall drop in law school applicants, the schools’ locations make it difficult to keep enrollment up. There are four law schools–University of St. Thomas Law, University of Minnesota Law, Hamline Law, and William Mitchell Law–all located in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota. With this much competition in one small region, it’s likely that all four of these schools have suffered. While, according to the president of the Minnesota State Bar Association, Richard Kyle, this merger is a “bold move,” it is one that makes sense given the high number of law schools in the Twin Cities.

It will be interesting to see the effects of the merger play out. Even with reduced competition in the region now, Mitchell | Hamline Law will still have an uphill battle in terms of enrollment. It will likely take the new school years to establish the reputation that will allow it to attract top students from across the country.

Brittany Alzfan

Brittany Alzfan is a student at the George Washington University majoring in Criminal Justice. She was a member of Law Street’s founding Law School Rankings team during the summer of 2014. Contact Brittany at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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