{"id":142838,"date":"2026-01-28T17:23:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/28\/regional-law-school-explores-long-distance-merger\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T17:23:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T01:23:06","slug":"regional-law-school-explores-long-distance-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/28\/regional-law-school-explores-long-distance-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional Law School Explores Long-Distance Merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Law school closures are a sad thing. Even when they have low bar passage rates<\/a>, seeing them close their doors is a somber occasion<\/a>. One way for a struggling law school to save face is to merge with another school to alleviate their need for funding, student head counts, and the like. The Appalachian School of Law is in a rough spot \u2014 low enrollment and funding issues are pushing them to merge with another school. There is a small issue: the school they\u2019re considering merging with is about three hours away. VA Lawyers Weekly<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

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[An] emergency meeting called into question the future of Virginia\u2019s smallest law school, which Appalachian School of Law President and Dean David Western told the board has 184 current students \u2014 short of the 300 he said the school needs to be \u201cfully sustainable.\u201d The law school also employs approximately 47 people.<\/p>\n

In a statement to Virginia Lawyers Weekly, Roanoke College spokesperson Alicia Petska confirmed the college \u201chas been involved in confidential conversations with the Appalachian School of Law. \u2026 We believe in their mission, and although there are many details to consider, we remain eager about what could be possible together. At this time, no formal agreement has been met.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Merging could help the school remain open, but it wouldn\u2019t be a fix all. The school was founded in part to help out the area\u2019s economy. If the school decides to stick to its roots and stay there, they\u2019d have to figure out what their income stream would be. Not only is the school short about the 120 students they\u2019d need to be fully sustainable, the Trump administration\u2019s recent attack on grad school loans makes it harder for the average American to even afford investing in a law degree<\/a>. Not the best time to shrink an already small pool of potential students.<\/p>\n

Legal deserts in places like Virginia<\/a> have needed attention for a long time now. Law school isn\u2019t just the hazing entity you survive before you get your Biglaw gig. Places need public defenders<\/a> and other legal assistance. Piggybacking on Roanoke may keep the doors open, but traveling that far away could betray some of the school\u2019s founding purposes. Whatever the Appalachian School of Law decides on, I hope that it meets their community\u2019s legal and financial needs.<\/p>\n

Appalachian School Of Law, Roanoke College Explore Merger<\/a> [VA Lawyers Weekly]<\/p>\n

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Regional Law School Explores Long-Distance Merger<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Law school closures are a sad thing. Even when they have low bar passage rates<\/a>, seeing them close their doors is a somber occasion<\/a>. One way for a struggling law school to save face is to merge with another school to alleviate their need for funding, student head counts, and the like. The Appalachian School of Law is in a rough spot \u2014 low enrollment and funding issues are pushing them to merge with another school. There is a small issue: the school they\u2019re considering merging with is about three hours away. VA Lawyers Weekly<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

[An] emergency meeting called into question the future of Virginia\u2019s smallest law school, which Appalachian School of Law President and Dean David Western told the board has 184 current students \u2014 short of the 300 he said the school needs to be \u201cfully sustainable.\u201d The law school also employs approximately 47 people.<\/p>\n

In a statement to Virginia Lawyers Weekly, Roanoke College spokesperson Alicia Petska confirmed the college \u201chas been involved in confidential conversations with the Appalachian School of Law. \u2026 We believe in their mission, and although there are many details to consider, we remain eager about what could be possible together. At this time, no formal agreement has been met.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Merging could help the school remain open, but it wouldn\u2019t be a fix all. The school was founded in part to help out the area\u2019s economy. If the school decides to stick to its roots and stay there, they\u2019d have to figure out what their income stream would be. Not only is the school short about the 120 students they\u2019d need to be fully sustainable, the Trump administration\u2019s recent attack on grad school loans makes it harder for the average American to even afford investing in a law degree<\/a>. Not the best time to shrink an already small pool of potential students.<\/p>\n

Legal deserts in places like Virginia<\/a> have needed attention for a long time now. Law school isn\u2019t just the hazing entity you survive before you get your Biglaw gig. Places need public defenders<\/a> and other legal assistance. Piggybacking on Roanoke may keep the doors open, but traveling that far away could betray some of the school\u2019s founding purposes. Whatever the Appalachian School of Law decides on, I hope that it meets their community\u2019s legal and financial needs.<\/p>\n

Appalachian School Of Law, Roanoke College Explore Merger<\/a> [VA Lawyers Weekly]<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected] <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Law school closures are a sad thing. Even when they have low bar passage rates, seeing them close their doors is a somber occasion. One way for a struggling law school to save face is to merge with another school to alleviate their need for funding, student head counts, and the like. The Appalachian School […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":142839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Chris-Williams-2025-2YwrwU.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}