By Ysabel Bilbao

The University of Idaho has received approval to start its third-year law program in Idaho’s capital following a favorable recommendation by the ABA Accreditation Committee.

“The third-year program in Boise will enhance opportunities for our students and will enable our faculty to provide more direct service to state government, the legal profession, the business community and the public,” said Don Burnett, dean of the U of I’s College of Law.

University officials have worked nearly three years to expand the law college to Boise. Classes will begin later this month. The University of Idaho Boise center will house about 27 students in the inaugural academic year.

Boise had been without a law school until just this year when Concordia University’s School of Law began construction at Fifth and Front streets in downtown Boise. The school is expanding and renovating 17,000 square feet in a three-story, 33,000-square-foot addition with a library, classrooms, offices and other amenities.

The long-range vision for U of I’s College of Law, in collaboration with the Idaho Supreme Court, is to develop an Idaho Law Learning Center in Boise. This center will be home to the university’s legal educational program, the Idaho State Law Library, judicial education offices and public outreach programs.

Burnett said the vision is to extend public legal education to Boise while maintaining the current program established in Moscow more than a century ago.

Ysabel Bilbao is the regional communication officer for University of Idaho.