February 11, 2005

Making a Case

A proposal to create Massachusetts' first public law school touches off a debate about missions and resources

By KARIN FISCHER

It has been 188 years since Harvard Law School, the nation's oldest, accepted its first class.

Today Harvard and Massachusetts' eight other law schools turn out about 2,500 freshly minted lawyers annually. The commonwealth boasts one lawyer for every 87 residents, one of the highest ratios of any state in the country.

But none of those lawyers has a law degree from the state's 14 public colleges. In fact, Massachusetts is one of just six states without a public law