In a recent article for City Journal, I profiled Lincoln Memorial University's Duncan School of Law, a new institution in Knoxville that offers skills-based training at a lower cost than the prevailing model of legal education. Another “alternative” law school, ostensibly with a similar mission, is the University of North Texas at Dallas College of Law, which presents an interesting contrast with both LMU and conventional legal academia.
Unlike LMU, a private school serving southern Appalachia, UNT at Dallas is a publicly funded institution that targets the diverse urban population of southern Dallas County. Created by the Texas legislature in 2009 and opened in 2014, the law school occupies the historic Old City Hall building, which underwent $70 million in renovations. Notably, Dallas already had a private law school, Southern Methodist University, and its sister city, Fort Worth, boasts the Texas A&M School of Law. With UNTD, Texas now has ten law schools statewide, six of which receive state funding.
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