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Learning Curve

By: dmc-admin//July 30, 2007//

Learning Curve

By: dmc-admin//July 30, 2007//

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“Silly” is how Wisconsin State Bar President Thomas J. Basting Sr. described a provision in the state Assembly’s budget, which seeks to phase out state funding for the University of Wisconsin Law School.

The proposal would reduce funding for Wisconsin’s lone public law school by $1 million in 2007-08 and by an additional $3 million in 2008-09. State support would be further diminished by $5 million in 2009-10, as compared to the 2006-07 base, and be fully eliminated by 2010-11.

Injected into the budget by state Rep. Frank Lasee, R-Green Bay, the provision will need to survive the bipartisan conference committee and Gov. Jim Doyle’s veto pen. Despite the long odds, Basting was troubled that the pitch even passed through the Assembly.

“The only thing that is bothersome, is that he (Lasee) got the entire Republican caucus to buy into this silly proposal,” said Basting, who was not aware of a proposal of this kind ever being floated around the Legislature.

Lasee, who was the primary author, said the provision was born out of his belief that Wisconsin already has enough attorneys to meet the needs of the public and that allocation of state funds could be better directed elsewhere.

Cost to Public

While Lasee acknowledged the function of attorneys in the state, he did not think it was the responsibility of taxpayers to support their education.

“It’s a question of allocation of tax dollars, and we’re subsidizing them too, so it makes sense to cut back where you have enough,” said Lasee, who suggested there is currently a greater need for more nurses, dentists and physical therapists in the state.

According to the University Budget Office, the estimated general purpose revenue (GPR) share of the 2006-07 Law School budget is $2,478,365. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau confirmed a similar number.

“I think these are intelligent, well-educated people, presumably, but if we had less of them that would mean less of them to create work for themselves and they could concentrate on more important cases,” said Lasee.

Basting rejected the claim that fewer lawyers would mean less litigation because it is the public which bring the lawsuits to the attorney, not the other way around. He added that the majority of work attorneys in the state do has nothing to do with lawsuits, and that matters of power of attorney, wills and real estate are more common than filing lawsuits.

“He’s (Lasee) criticizing Wisconsin lawyers as what he calls ambulance chasers and filing frivolous lawsuits, and that contributes to a badly distorted public perception of Wisconsin attorneys anyhow,” said Basting. “If he looked at the stats, unlike the Legislature by the way, lawyers are the leaders in their communities.”

Basting also denounced the claim that the state is overpopulated with attorneys. He cited a 2006 national survey revealed that most states average 3.7 active lawyers per 1,000 people, but Wisconsin averages 2.6 active lawyers per 1,000.

“An interesting stat shows that if you break the Legislature down it operates at $1 million per legislator,” said Basting. “If we cut the size of the Assembly in half, the state could save $50 million dollars and have lot less frivolous bills like this one that was floated.”

Cost to Students

“Another way to look at it is this proposal would slow down the competition for current attorneys if there were potentially fewer graduates,” said Lasee.

That could be a realistic notion if the provision were to pass, according to UW Law School Dean, Kenneth B. Davis, who noted that ramifications of the proposal would be financially significant for aspiring legal minds of modest means.

According to the State Bar, there are currently more than 5,400 UW Law School graduates who have an active license to practice and reside in the state.

“By terminating the Law School’s share of GPR over the next two biennia, Assembly Republican Caucus Amendment No. 9 would effectively privatize the law school,” said Davis.

Lasee questioned the logic in subsidizing the education of attorneys “especially when they enjoy below median tuition of other law schools in the Big Ten.”

In order to replace the state funding, Davis said resident tuition would need to be increased by more than $5,000. Currently, Wisconsin residents pay $12,500 annually and non-residents pay $30,800.

“This would move the school from the lowest in-state tuition in the Big Ten to one of the highest,” said Davis. “The result would be that many in-state students from all but the most affluent families would no longer have access to a law school education or could do so only by taking on the kind of overwhelming debt burden that both compels them to seek employment in major urban centers, typically outside the state, and risks imperiling their early professional careers.”

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