National Law Journal, A Law School Sprouts in California’s Desert:
A group of attorneys in Indio, Calif. are moving forward with plans to open a new law school next September.
The California Desert Trial Academy College of Law will focus on preparing students for trial advocacy and fill a need for a local law school, said criminal defense attorney John Patrick Dolan, president and chief executive officer of the venture. … Dolan said the school is intended primarily to serve local residents. The school hopes to enroll 25 to 40 students next year. … Dolan plans to secure accreditation from the California State Bar — and possibly from the ABA down the line.
Annual tuition for the four-year program will be $12,000, including books for the first class, Dolan said. “We’re able to keep the tuition low because myself and the other faculty are getting paid little or nothing,” Dolan said. …
He doesn’t expect the difficult job market for young attorneys to affect the new school’s graduates. “We don’t anticipate that our graduates will be getting jobs at the big law firms,” he said. “We see them becoming DAs, public defenders or starting their own practice. It’s my understanding that the biggest problems in the marketplace right now is that the big firms aren’t hiring as much and they’re laying people off.”
- The Desert Sun, Proposed Law School Focuses on the Practical
