Updated: SLU law school moving downtown; concern raised over parking, security

Saint Louis University

Saint Louis University officials have a tall order within the coming months for a new law school building: renovating an 11-story structure in downtown St. Louis for a modern-day legal education and meeting logistical needs such as parking and security to accommodate 1,100 students, faculty and staff.

It’s an ambitious move and timetable, but university officials, students and some alumni believe the school will benefit by being so close to multiple courthouses downtown and big law firms in the area.

The university announced last week that the law school will move from midtown St. Louis to a 260,000-square-foot downtown building at 100 N. Tucker Blvd.

The building is across Chestnut from the St. Louis Civil Courts Building and within walking distance of the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse. The school aims to have the building ready by early August, in time for the 2012-2013 academic year.

The building is “in excellent structural condition” and features a main lobby, ground-floor auditorium, a three-story parking garage and seven floors that can be occupied, according to SLU’s announcement.

“The interior is essentially a blank canvas, which means that we can develop the flexible, multipurpose, technology-centric spaces we need to support how legal education is being taught today,” said Annette Clark, dean of the Saint Louis University School of Law, in a statement.

Joe H. Scott Jr., founder of a company that owns and manages office space in St. Louis, donated the building to the law school, SLU officials said. SLU will name the building the Joe and Loretta Scott Law Center.

The new building will provide about 25,000 more square feet for the law school, Clark said in an interview.

It’s too early to tell whether the school will change class sizes or grow in any way as a result of the move, she said.

She declined for now to estimate a financial budget for the move. The project will entail building lecture halls, faculty offices and floor plans that are consistent with an up-to-date legal education, she said.

For instance, one of the changes in legal education has been increased small-group work and collaboration. “You need more small-group spaces,” she said.

Clark said university officials wanted to move there to provide a better legal education, noting the building’s proximity to courthouses and law firms.

“The opportunities it will open up for our students and our faculty are incredible,” she said.

Logistical needs

Now university officials need to take care of some practical needs. Only about 160 spots are available in the parking garage for the more than 1,000 students, faculty and staff who will use the new building.

University officials are exploring additional parking options nearby and shuttle service options between the building and SLU’s midtown campus.

The law school’s night classes for part-time students may increase the need for added security. Clark said the university will assess security needed around the new building and will provide security just as it does for other campuses.

Mayor Francis Slay, a 1980 graduate of Saint Louis University’s law school, said the parking, housing and security issues will not be tough to handle.

“We know how to work with businesses,” he said in an interview, adding that establishments have moved to downtown because they feel they have security and parking availability. “We’re going to do everything in our power to assist them.”

Slay said university officials haven’t approached the city government about incentives or other kinds of financial assistance for the project.

It’s not clear if the 1960s-era building has asbestos concerns. A law school spokeswoman said the university and contractors are looking into all aspects of the new building and it’s soon to speculate on asbestos questions.

Originally, the school had planned to expand its current building along Lindell Boulevard.

“If this great opportunity hadn’t come along,” Clark said about the Scotts’ donation, “we would have continued with our original plans.”

Clark said she did not know what will happen to the law school’s current building.

Slay said the move adds to the momentum of revitalizing the downtown area. He said the influx of students, faculty and staff will benefit the real estate market, hospitality industry and local businesses.

“How you measure long-term economic impact is very difficult,” he said, but this move certainly is “going to be a boost.”

Ranking impact

Clark said she couldn’t directly comment on whether the school’s move may affect its U.S. News & World Report ranking.

“I know it will affect our ability to provide an outstanding legal education to students,” she said.

In the U.S. News rankings, Saint Louis University School of Law fell out of the top 100 in 2010 to the alphabetical listing in the third-tier schools. In 2011, it was ranked No. 104. The law school’s health law program was ranked No. 1 for the eighth-straight year.

Max Huber, a 2L student at the law school, said he and classmates were surprised to hear the school was moving, but they saw it as a positive step.

Students had mixed feelings about the law school’s current building, he said.

“Our building is nice, but I don’t know if it’s up to the quality of other schools,” he said, adding some people believe the classrooms are outdated.

“I think our ranking will increase because I think our current location is one of the factors bogging down SLU’s ranking a little bit,” he said.

He said the ability to integrate legal education with courtrooms as well as a higher ranking “will make my degree more valuable.”

Alumni reaction

Joe Porter Jr., a law school alum who is a Polsinelli Shughart shareholder in the firm’s downtown St. Louis office, said the school’s proximity to law firms could help in fundraising and alumni activities.

“I think it will be easier for the downtown lawyers to connect to the law school,” he said.

Yet Porter was doubtful that the proximity will affect law firm recruitment of the school’s students.

“The hiring practices of law firms is such that the location of the law school” is practically negligible, he said.

But Porter and other alumni attorneys remarked on the potential for better legal education with a law school so close to real courtrooms.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if a student, on a one- or two-hour break, could go and sit in a courtroom,” said Susan Block, an attorney at Paule, Camazine & Blumenthal. She calls the area “the courthouse corridor.”

Jim Crowe, another law school alum, pointed out the benefits of having a university law library for lawyers downtown, especially those who may not have time to go back to their offices for legal research during a busy day.

“An academic law library will be a great resource that I think alumni will take advantage of,” said Crowe, who practices at the Dowd Bennett firm.