Chapman University to Add Law School : Education: Institution could become county’s first to be accredited by American Bar Assn. Lawyers hail idea.

Chapman University will establish what could become Orange County’s first law school accredited by the American Bar Assn., university officials said Friday.

Officials will not discuss details until next week, but they said that administrators have been exploring the possibility of a law school on the campus for about a year.

Chapman President James L. Doti will announce the creation of the school on Monday. Western State University College of Law Prof. Jeremy Miller will become acting dean of the school, Chapman officials said.

“It’s incredibly wonderful,” Tustin attorney Kathryn E. Terry said about the prospect of an accredited law school in the county. “And Jeremy (Miller) is dedicated, hard-working and brilliant. I think he’ll be an excellent dean.”

Miller has been at Western State since 1983, and teaches at its Fullerton campus. He lists several published law books and tapes for students on his resume, and is a former columnist for the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

He is the editor of Orange County Lawyer magazine and also helped create Western State’s celebrated program that requires new students to do free legal work for the poor and needy to graduate.

Miller could not be reached for comment.

Terry said she has spoken with Miller--who was once her professor at Western State--about becoming an instructor at the new law school.

“Young people coming out of college will have an option now,” Terry said. If Chapman succeeds at getting American Bar Assn. accreditation, she said, it likely will attract a different student base than Western State--the county’s main law school.

Kim Craft, a spokeswoman for Western State, said the college is accredited by the Committee of Bar Examiners of the State Bar of California, but not by the American Bar Assn. Western State unsuccessfully had sought American Bar Assn. accreditation for several years.

The association accredits only schools that satisfy set standards in student-teacher ratios, library size and other academic areas.

“I know people like myself, who could have qualified for an ABA school because of grades and academics, but had to stay in Orange County,” Terry said. “Some of us were mothers and working and married--we couldn’t commute up to Pepperdine (University) or other law schools.”

Other attorneys praised the idea of a new law school in Orange County. Representatives of the county’s bar association say their organization is California’s third largest--with 9,700 lawyers--behind Los Angeles and San Francisco bar associations.

“Orange County is a big enough community and growing fast enough that it could easily use another law school,” Orange County Bar Assn. President Steve McCracken has said. “That’s despite the fact Western State’s provided a great service to the county.”

Newport Beach lawyer Andrew J. Guilford said a new law school would provide the county with a good local research library, as well as competitive law students who could become clerks in local courts. It would also benefit Chapman’s growth, he said.

“Virtually every major university in the country has a law school,” Guilford said. “A law school strengthens a university and gives it a bigger alumni base.”

Guilford noted that UC Irvine also had explored the possibility of creating a law school, but that plans are on hold. Other attorneys pointed out that officials at Loyola University, in Los Angeles County, were considering establishing a law school in Orange County--but decided against it.