The George Washington University Law School is the latest to drop its enrollment as fewer people applied to law school for the upcoming academic year.

GW Law plans to keep its enrollment below 450, compared to this year’s class of 474, the National Law Journal reports.

Law schools across the country are grappling with upcoming fall enrollment in the face of the declining number of people taking the LSAT and even fewer applying to law school.

The University of California Hastings College of the Law announced this year that it also plans to decrease enrollment. Albany Law School, Creighton University School of Law and Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center also reduced class sizes during the 2011-2012 school year.

GW Law saw its number of applicants fall 15 percent, Law Dean Paul Schiff Berman told the Journal. It will lose some tuition revenue but plans to recoup it in increased fundraising and introducing new programs for students outside the law school, Berman said.

Baltimore schools are experiencing the similar problems. The University of Baltimore School of Law told The Daily Record  in March that its applicant numbers were down 17 percent this admissions cycle, but University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law officials were less concerned.

Though Yale, Stanford and Harvard law schools may be top of the class this year according to U.S. News & World Report rankings, the University of Baltimore School of Law may have won the popularity contest.

The University of Baltimore School of Law had one of the highest increases in enrollment in 2011, U.S. News & World Report announced Tuesday.

Enrollment at law schools dropped 2 percent nationally last year compared to the previous admissions cycle. UB Law, however, saw a 3.7 percent increase in enrollment from the previous year. Of the students it accepted, 38.5 percent enrolled, giving it the tenth-highest increase in year-to-year enrollment in 2011.

UB Law placed 113th in U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings released earlier this month.

The University of Virginia School of Law had the highest increased enrollment with 51.9 percent of its accepted students enrolling, a 12 percent increase from the previous year. Georgia State University College of Law came in second with a 52.7 percent enrollment rate, a 9.1 percent increase from the year before. The University of North Carolina School of Law took third place with a 53.7 percent enrollment rate, a 7.2 percent increase from the previous year.

Law schools sent out a total 175,085 acceptance letters in 2011 but only enrolled 44,366 students.

Some Ivy Leaguers may have their crimson shorts in a twist after U.S. News & World Report’s release of its 2013 Best Law Schools rankings.

Yale Law School once again tops the list, but Stanford Law School moves into the No. 2 spot, over East coast incumbent, Harvard Law School. The Cardinal have topped the Crimson.

Harvard has held its second place position since 2007, though it tied with Stanford in 2009.

Columbia Law School in New York followed by University of Chicago Law School round out the top five on the list.

The University of Maryland School of Law climbed up the rankings, coming in at No. 39, a jump from its No. 42 position last year. The year before, it rose from No. 48 to No. 42.

Maryland is tied, however, tied at the No. 39 spot with three others—Brigham Young University Law School, George Mason University School of Law and Ohio State University College of Law.

For specialties, Maryland ranked No. 3 for healthcare law and No. 5 in clinical training.

The University of Baltimore School of Law ranked No. 113. It was tied with Quinnipiac University School of Law in Connecticut, Gonzaga University School of Law in Washington, Florida International University College of Law, Albany Law School and CUNY School of Law in New York.

The University of Baltimore School of law has narrowed its search for its next dean down to 12 candidates, according to the chairwoman of the search committee.

Michele E. Gilman, a professor and director of the civil advocacy clinic, told students in an email Tuesday that the committee will be interviewing all 12 candidates during the first week of March.

“The names of these candidates are confidential, but we are pleased to let you know that the group is diverse in terms of race, gender, experience, and geography,” Gilman wrote.

Interim Dean F. Michael Higginbotham, pictured, has said he would not be among the candidates.

The committee then hopes to bring three finalists back to campus at the end of March for further interviews and give students a chance to meet the candidates.

The search committee consists of eight faculty members, two alumni, two students and one staff member.

Last month, the Student Bar Association at the University of Baltimore School of Law asked for a seat at the table as the law school tried to sort out its financial relationship with the university that led to former Dean Phil Closius’ resignation.

SBA President Julius Blattner, in an email sent to students Tuesday night, said the organization will not have representation on the committee reviewing financial data but will instead receive weekly updates on the committee’s progress.

“The Chair of the committee [law school professor Michael I. Meyerson] believes that having a student serve on the committee tasked to reach the broad agreement with the President [Robert L. Bogomolny] would be more harmful than good in reaching the best deal possible,” he wrote. “After the agreement is in place, the Chair believes student input is not only useful but essential.”

Blattner also said an independent auditor will not be involved in the negotiations because of “time considerations”; instead, financial figures from the university and “other comparable law schools” will be provided to select faculty and university officials.

The committee will first determine if other law schools are getting treated better by their universities than UB, Blattner wrote, followed by reaching an agreement with Bogomolny over how to put UB’s law school on equal footing with the other law schools.

“The final part, which is where student input will be most important, is then to decide how best to use any additional monies,” Blattner wrote.

The agreement is supposed to be in place by mid-October to aid the dean search process and “get the law school moving forward and focused on the future as soon as possible,” he wrote.

F. Michael Higginbotham, interim dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law, welcomed incoming day students at the beginning of orientation Wednesday. He then asked a rhetorical question some of them might have been thinking.

“Who is this guy?” Higginbotham said to laughter. “Where is Dean Closius?”

Higginbotham then gave a brief summary of events over the past few weeks.

“The dean and the president got into a dispute over finances,” he said. “Dean [Phillip] Closius decided to remove himself from the deanship.”

The dispute is one Higginbotham has seen multiple times in his two decades at the law school.

“It’s not about individuals or a particular individual. What it is about is principles and principles of fairness,” he said. “I will fight for principles of fairness at the law school. I will fight for a fair budget.”

Higginbotham expressed confidence that the longstanding financial issues will be resolved through scheduled meetings with university President Robert L. Bogomolny and administration officials. He was so confident, in fact, he deflected a student’s question about what would happen if such an agreement couldn’t be reached.

“Let’s not go there,” the interim dean said. “Let’s keep it positive.”

Higginbotham told the students about the nationwide search to replace Closius, one in which Higginbotham would not be a candidate because of his love of teaching.

“If my passion were administrative duties, I’d be the first in line [to apply] for this job,” he said. “This school is strong, this school is moving forward.”

Dean Phillip Closius’ ouster from the top job at the University of Baltimore School of Law has some crying foul. For more, read on.

• The law firm Miller & Zois was so dismayed at the dean’s resignation/firing that the firm has offered to pony up $10,000 if Closius returns as dean. They’re looking for other supporters to step up with donations, too. Anyone?
• Job offers to summer associates were down by a third in 2010.
• In her spare time, Judge Mary Ellen Barbera also officiates weddings.
• Paul Mark Sandler explores historical approaches to advocacy.
• Betting on the bar exam.
• How fair are mandatory minimums?
• Even lawyers get writer’s block.

What did you do during breakfast this morning? If you’re like most people, you skimmed the local paper, grumbled at the weather report, checked your e-mail or tried to keep your kids from ripping each others’ hair out.

Well, my Thursday started much differently than it usually does. Over coffee and a bagel, I discussed abortion, homosexuality, HIV and religion with some of the world’s foremost feminist thinkers.

I had the pleasure and the privilege to start my day at University of Baltimore School of Law’s Feminist Legal Theory Conference. Before the program had even begun, lively chatter broke out among a number of presenters sitting at my table. Though the discourse changed as I slowly drained my cup, the underlying concern on everyone’s mind was apparent: How can we improve the lives of women around the world through legal practice and policy?

The event, in its fourth year, featured guest speaker Toni Morrison (above) – whom, I’m sorry to say, I missed because tickets went like hotcakes — as well as panels on reproductive health, socio-economics, women in combat and feminist activism.

Though I won’t bore you with my own opinions on these pressing global issues,  I will implore you — when this conference comes around again next year, sign up.

I only wish I could start my day the feminist way every morning.

Today’s Maryland Lawyer cover story is our interview with Phil Closius, dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law. One thing he said that I couldn’t fit into the story is that the average UB student graduates with about $90,000 in debt.

He once recited that figure to an alum and his daughter, a prospective student. “That high?” the father said. “That’s all?” the daughter said.

The figure is “on the low side” for law schools, Closius said, but he sees it the way alum does.

“If you come to UB, the bulk of students are going to have to be able to deal with a $90,000 debt service on a $65,000-a-year salary,” he said. “That’s not easy.”

The school, incidentally, has raised tuition 77 percent in the last 7 years.

“The only thing that justifies it is, so is everyone else in the law school world,” Closius said.

In that vein, I asked him about the future of law schools; a recent law review article predicts there will be   fewer law schools in the years to come. Closius said he believes law schools will close or shrink in size.

“The pressures are becoming too strong,” he said. “If you’re not producing jobs, if you’re not giving people the economics that make sense, you’re going to get hurt. And I think it’s going to happen soon.”

Just not at UB, he was quick to add.

“I don’t think we’re closing,” he said. “We’re on the good side.”

As reported in today’s Maryland Lawyer, many former students of the late University of Baltimore law professor Royal G. Shannonhouse III will remember him — quite fondly — as the school’s answer to Charles W. Kingsfield Jr., the contracts professor in the novel, movie and television series The Paper Chase who made his students’ life a living hell.

The most memorable scene from the 1973 movie — and one that now seems quaint in an era of cellphones — is when Kingsfield, played by John Houseman, reaches into his pocket and tells student James T. Hart in front of the whole class, “Mister Hart, here is a dime. Take it, call your mother and tell her there is serious doubt about you ever becoming a lawyer.”

Hart, played by Timothy Bottoms,  responds to the professor’s comment by calling him “a son of a bitch.”

But Kingsfield, as is his wont, gets in the last word: “Mr. Hart, that is the smartest thing you’ve said all day. You may take your seat.”

Who was your Professor Kingsfield? Tell us about him or her in the Comments.