Summary: University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law welcomes the largest class of incoming students this fall in its history.
The largest class in the 41-year history of the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa began classes last week, according to a press release from the school.
The class size has nearly doubled from one year ago as 99 incoming law students have joined the ranks compared to just 53 one year ago. The evening part-time program has 24 students enrolled and seven have enrolled in the LLM program. There are seven students enrolled in the brand new Advanced JD program and six transfer and two visiting students are also at the school.
The total number of incoming students for the Fall 2014 entering class stands at 145.
Avi Soifer, the law school dean, said the following in the release:
“We are very excited to have so many students taking advantage of our personalized instruction and our relatively low tuition. They can expect the rare experience of a rigorous legal education that students actually like. And the word is out that our students actually support each other and that they can expect to get challenging legal jobs.”
He added, “This substantial upturn in enrollment did not just happen. Elisabeth Steele Hutchison, our Director of Admissions, her staff, and the faculty and students on our admissions committee — as well as many other faculty and staff members — worked hard to attract these extraordinary students. In addition, Professor Alison Connor helped develop and implement our new Advanced JD program and we recruited outstanding students for the first class.”
Earlier last week, the incoming class stood in the Hawaii Supreme Court to take the Richardson student pledge. The pledge was administered by Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald.
Prior to issuing the student pledge, Recktenwald said there is “a great partnership between the Law School and the Supreme Court. What it means to be a Richardson law student is a commitment to access to justice, and a commitment to civility and professionalism. What really stands out is that those commitments have been embraced by the students.”