{"id":3473,"date":"2026-10-20T08:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T12:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/?p=3473"},"modified":"2026-10-20T11:19:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T15:19:37","slug":"what-makes-a-public-law-school-great","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/what-makes-a-public-law-school-great\/","title":{"rendered":"What Makes a Public Law School Great?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story was first published by Dean Andy Hessick<\/a> on Medium<\/a> in August 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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People often distinguish public law schools from private law schools. It is common, for example, for public schools to note their rank among other public schools when discussing law school rankings. But it is hard to find an explanation of why we should differentiate public schools from other schools. In my view, public schools are different because they have two roles. A public law school is a law school, but it is also a state institution committed to serving the state. Excelling in both roles is what makes a public law school great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A public law school is in the first place a law school. Being a great law school means providing a first-rate education to prepare the next generation of lawyers and leaders. It must teach its graduates not simply the law, but also a host of skills including how to use the law effectively, how to think critically and analytically, how to connect with others and instill trust, and how to adapt to handle new situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other hallmark of a great law school is the production of research and scholarship. Legal scholarship has the potential to improve the legal system and society generally by providing new frameworks for approaching problems, reexamining matters previously deemed settled, testing assumptions and answering questions left unresolved by cases and laws. One need look only at the opinion in Erie v. Tompkins, which relied on \u201crecent research of a competent scholar\u201d in abolishing federal general common law, to see the potential impact scholarship may have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public law schools have another function, one that distinguishes them from private schools. A public law school is a state entity. It is created by the people of the state to serve the people of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dean Andy Hessick<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The signature way in which public law schools perform this function is by making legal education more accessible and affordable to their state residents. But a public law school may serve its state in other ways. It might supply the state workforce, not simply in the public sector but also in the private sector because those jobs contribute to the state\u2019s economy. It might provide pro bono legal services to state residents or conduct research aimed at improving state institutions or addressing social problems in the state. What these forms of service have in common is that they aim to improve the welfare of the people of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This public mission is not a charitable add-on that hinders public law schools; instead, it changes what excellence means. It informs whom the school educates, what problems it studies, which services it provides and how it measures success. The performance of the school depends in part on the public value it creates. A public mindset helps produce civic leaders and lawyers committed to helping the community, and it encourages research that solves broad societal problems. The goal is not simply to accumulate academic prestige; it is to produce graduates who will improve society and scholarship that matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many private schools also embrace public service. They house clinics and offer programs that help students secure government and public interest jobs. The difference between a private law school and a public law school is in the nature and intensity of the commitment to service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a private law school, public service is a mission choice; for a public law school, it is part of the institution\u2019s reason for being. Public service is part of the design of a public law school. It educates and supports the state, and the state supports it in return. A public law school embodies a decision of the people of the state to devote state resources to legal education, and the needs of the state are a factor that bears on institutional decisions. That state orientation does not imply parochiality. The strongest public law schools often serve their states by producing work and graduates with national influence. But their public character gives them a particular responsibility to ask how their efforts connect back to the state that supports them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No doubt, the two roles of public law schools can sometimes be in tension. For example, providing an excellent education produces talented graduates attractive to employers of all stripes. They face the attraction of high-paying jobs, perhaps out of state, instead of pursuing careers in the more rural areas of a state where more legal services are needed. But experience has shown that the two goals \u2014 being a great law school and serving the state \u2014 often are mutually reinforcing. Aspiring to produce the best lawyers for the state leads to better education. At UNC School of Law, for example, clinics and pro bono programs designed to help those in need in North Carolina have led to top-notch experiential education; initiatives to educate high school seniors on fiscal responsibility have resulted in programs teaching law students how to communicate tax law clearly. Similarly, efforts to solve local problems often lead to excellent research that is applicable beyond the state. For example, questions about campaign finance in North Carolina prosecutor elections prompted a nationwide study on the topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the challenges of a public law school is determining how to balance the two roles. Different institutions may strike different balances based on their own missions, circumstances and histories. But the aspiration is to pursue excellence both as a law school and as a state institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What makes a public law school great? Dean Andy Hessick argues it takes excellence in two roles at once, as a law school and as an institution created to serve the people of its state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3473"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3713,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3473\/revisions\/3713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.law.unc.edu\/fall-2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}