The University of Georgia and University of Florida have one of the most contentious rivalries in college football — and it was obvious Saturday afternoon at EverBank Field.
The institution’s law school deans — not so much.
Maybe it’s because they’re both fairly new to their jobs, each having started in 2015.
Maybe it’s because they’re facing the same challenges in terms of admissions and moving their institutions forward as the practice of law is changing.
Maybe it’s because they were classmates at Harvard.
Those were some of the topics that came up Friday when Laura Ann Rosenbury, dean of the Fredric G. Levin College of Law at UF, and Bo Rutledge, dean of the University of Georgia School of Law, were the guests at The Jacksonville Bar Association’s annual “Dueling Deans” luncheon.
Both were making their second appearance at the meeting always held the day before the football game.
Rosenbury, the first permanent female dean in the school’s 106-year history, said there are many things that unite the two schools, including having the responsibility to prepare the next generation of lawyers and ensuring that all people have equal access to justice.
When she spoke to the association last year, she had set some lofty goals. “Probably because I didn’t know any better,” she said.
Friday, Rosenbury offered a report of success.
She said the school’s academic standards have risen, leading to a decrease in the acceptance rate from more than 60 percent for the 2015 class to 35 percent in 2016.
While the national average increase in law school applications was just 1.8 percent, it was up 98 percent at Florida.
Rutledge also cited a major change in law school applications, but of a different nature at Georgia.
He said in 2010, 4,200 students applied to enter Georgia’s school, but only 1,900 applied in 2015.
The changes in how lawyers practice law, including in-house counsel and a challenging job market for new graduates, have created an “existential challenge” for the future of the profession.
Rosenbury said the diversity at the school increased to more than 40 percent of first-year students being racially or ethnically diverse in the 2016 entering class.
“We are very proud to have turned our admissions around in one year,” she said.
There will be more financial aid available at UF in the coming years as well.
The 21,000 alumni of the law school helped raise over $7 million last year — more than was raised in the three previous years combined, said Rosenbury.
And she’s not through.
“We will not rest on our laurels. We will make UF Law one of the most elite public law schools in the nation,” she said.
Rutledge said the future of Georgia’s law school also will be built around a new type of student, with 17 percent of the 2016 class being the first child in their family to attend college.
The school has begun the “Georgia WILL” initiative — Women in Law Leading — that will bring top female attorneys and judges to 12 events at the school in the next academic year.
Georgia has established a law clinic for victims of child sexual abuse and next year will establish one for military veterans.
On the philanthropy side, Rutledge said the school raised more than $7 million for financial aid in the 2015 academic year.
That’s important because more than 70 percent of law students at Georgia receive some form of financial aid.
“We aim to be the best return on investment in legal education in the country,” Rutledge said. “We’re not done.”
(904) 356-2466