University of Idaho takes 110 transfer students from shuttered Concordia law school in Boise

The University of Idaho’s College of Law has hired eight new faculty members to accommodate an influx of 110 transfer students from Concordia University’s School of Law in Boise, which has closed due to financial troubles.

Two of those students will move to the UI’s main campus in Moscow, while the rest will remain in Boise.

“As the state’s public law school, we felt that it was our obligation to help Concordia students who wanted to complete their legal education in Idaho,” UI College of Law Dean Jerrold Long said in an announcement Friday.

Concordia University, which is based in Portland, announced in February that its law school in Boise would close due to financial troubles. The law school tried to partner with another Concordia institution, but that plan fell apart and students scrambled to find new schools.

The UI previously accepted 53 law students from Concordia in 2014, when Concordia failed to get accreditation from the American Bar Association. Forty-two of those students earned law degrees from the UI.

The Concordia students will push the UI’s law school enrollment to nearly 500 students. Spokeswoman Noelle Collins said the school had 374 students enrolled before the transfers were finalized. Last year, the school enrolled about 325, she said.

Accordingly, the law school plans to expand its footprint, using additional classrooms and office space on the UI’s Boise campus, when the city returns to Phase 4 of the governor’s reopening plan.