Masters of Studies in Law (Msl) Program

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PROPOSED MASTERS OF STUDIES IN LAW (MSL) PROGRAM

A. Description of the Proposed Program

The faculty of the University of Colorado Law School (“Colorado Law”) propose to create a new Masters of Studies in Law (MSL) degree. The MSL will be a one-year program requiring twenty-eight credits of coursework that enables students who hold at least an undergraduate degree to obtain legal training short of a full JD.

This proposal stems from several significant developments in the markets for legal services and for legal education. First, just as an increasing number of medical tasks now are handled by nurse practitioners (as opposed to doctors), an increasing number of legal tasks are handled by non-lawyers. Moreover, a wide variety of business roles require some legal knowledge in order to be effective at their jobs. Thus, at the same time that demand for traditional JD programs is falling (the number of U.S. law school applicants in 2013 fell by over 45% from 2009 numbers),1 demand for more limited legal training programs is increasing. In response to this shift, over 60 universities now offer MSL-type programs.2

Colorado Law proposes to respond to these market dynamics by creating its own MSL program, which reflects the unique strengths of Colorado Law and the particular needs of the Colorado market. In designing our MSL degree, we are leveraging the lessons we have learned from our relatively new LL.M degree, which has been granted to students in four consecutive classes. Most importantly, through our experience with the LL.M degree, we have conducted vital proof of concept experiments in the best way to administer a new masters degree program in a law school of our size and character, and we would plan to emulate many of these design features in the MSL program. At the same time, we think the MSL will tap a much broader market for students and employers than the LL.M. If the MSL is approved, we will end the LL.M degree program and treat the incoming Fall 2015 LL.M class as our last. We will then use the economic framework for the LL.M program in administering the MSL program.

1. Proposed MSL Degree Program—Concentrated Study in Areas of Excellence

The MSL degree we propose will require admitted students to complete twenty-eight credits of approved coursework. Most recipients of the new degree will complete their studies in one academic year, but we will build in flexibility to allow exceptions to accommodate non-

1 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/education/law-schools-applications-fall-as-costs-rise-and-jobs-are-cut.html 2 For a listing of the 60+ schools reporting MSL enrollment see Data From the 2013 Annual Questionnaire ABA- Approved Law School JD and Non JD Enrollment Data: Fall 2013, American Bar Association (posted 1/18/2014), http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/statistics.html. A comparison of some of the more prominent of these programs with the proposed Colorado Law MSL program appears in Exhibit A. traditional cases such as students who work part-time while earning the degree over one-and-a- half or two years. Every MSL student will be required to take two core courses—one an Introduction to American Law and another in legal writing—to graduate. In addition, students will be required to complete some mix of required and elective courses, according to their prescribed specialty track, as discussed next.

We are seeking approval for a general degree in legal studies, but we intend to offer the degree in specific, pre-designated specialty tracks. At this stage, we have not yet designed the process we will use to designate specialty tracks. But we can give some indication for the likely general shape of these tracks.

First, we have identified what we believe to be an especially compelling opportunity to offer a track designed to train patent agents. This is the job title given to legal professionals who are certified by the United States and Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) to practice one narrow but important form of law: representing inventors in front of the PTO applying for a patent on an invention. Patent agents do not have JD degrees and are not certified by the state bar to practice other forms of law. Among many other compelling reasons for this track, we would use it to build on our already strong ties to the University’s Technology Transfer Office. We would also hope to develop connections through this program to the newly created Denver Field Office of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In Exhibit B, we provide a longer justification and sample curriculum for this specialty track.

Like the potential track for patent agents, all of our specialty tracks will be selected and designed to give graduates the legal skills necessary to excel at a particular job or in a particular industry. As described in more detail below in Section B1, these tracks will respond to student and employer demand. At least some of the tracks will be drawn from three core areas of emphasis: (1) environmental, natural resources, and energy law; (2) technology and intellectual property law; and (3) entrepreneurial/business law. These are these same three areas of focus we chose for our LL.M degree. Over time we will develop tracks outside these three areas (compliance, for example, is a cross-cutting discipline that could apply to fields such as health care as well as natural resources and banking).

Natural Resources, Energy, and Environmental Law

Colorado Law is consistently ranked among the top natural resources law programs in the nation. MSL students who focus on this area of study will graduate with the skills to provide immediate value to government, industry, law firms, and non-profit organizations that confront legal and policy issues in ecosystem management, water and air quality, mineral and oil mining, wildlife conservation, and public and private land ownership.

Currently, Colorado Law offers several natural resource law classes each semester. Classes include: Environmental Law, Foundations of Natural Resources Law and Policy, Climate Change Law and Policy, Energy Insecurity and Sustainable Energy, Energy Law and Regulation, International Environmental Law, Land Use Planning, Mining and Energy Law, Oil and Gas, Public Land Law, Water Resources, Advanced Natural Resources Law Seminar, and the Environmental Philosophy and Law Seminar. Additionally, Colorado Law students have the

2 opportunity to take the Natural Resources, Energy, & Environmental Law Clinic, where students engage in litigation and advocacy aimed at protecting the natural resources of the Rocky Mountain region.

Students will be able to avail themselves of the rich and vibrant intellectual environment that is created by the Getches Wilkinson Center (GWC), formerly the Natural Resources Law Center (NRLC). The NRLC was founded in 1982 to inform and influence natural resource law and policy. At any given time, the GWC has a number of distinct research and consultant projects in process. Many are multi-year efforts that feature distinct phases that could incorporate student research and writing. In addition, the GWC regularly sponsors conferences, seminars and presentations that will expose MSL students to decision-makers in government, industry, and the academy throughout their study at Colorado Law.

Our setting amid the foothills of the Rocky Mountains allows the mind and spirit to soar. The University of Colorado at Boulder leads the nation in research and programs addressing environmental and natural resources issues, partnering with leading federal agencies, including the Boulder-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and numerous major non- profit and advocacy groups.

Technology and Intellectual Property Law

Students in specialty tracks relating to technology and intellectual property law will explore the frontiers of technology policy and intellectual property while preparing to work in the information age. These students will learn the legal foundations for protecting and commercializing intellectual property, along with how to draft contracts and/or patent applications. The patent agent track described above would fit within this broader category, but we would hope to create other, related tracks over time.

Colorado Law offers multiple technology and intellectual property focused courses, including: Introduction to Intellectual Property Law, Computers and the Law, Copyright, Intellectual Property Counseling and Prosecution, IP and Technology Contracting, Law and Economics in the Information Age, Patent Law, Patent Litigation, Telecommunications Law and Policy, Trademark and Unfair Competition Law, Information Privacy, and Law and Economics of Utility Regulation. Additionally, the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic, provides students with the opportunity to advocate in the public interest concerning technology issues in front of regulatory entities, courts, legislatures, and standard setting bodies.

Outside the classroom, the MSL students who focus on technology and intellectual property will have an abundant array of activities sponsored by the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship (SFC). This Center hosts leading technology policy conferences, bringing together legal, technical, regulatory, and business experts to debate policy issues, and facilitates networking and the development of “human capital” in the technology community. Through the SFC, degree program students will have access to high-level attorneys, policy-makers, businesses, and entrepreneurs.

Additionally, MSL students concentrating in this field have access to one of the nation’s premier telecommunications and technology hubs, featuring CableLabs, Level 3 Communications, IBM, VMware, Oracle, and TechStars.

Entrepreneurial/Business Law

Specialty tracks focused on entrepreneurial/business law will capitalize on Colorado Law’s strengths in business related courses and a strong faculty specializing in corporate and commercial law. Students will focus on issues regularly faced by transactional lawyers and the degree will signal that graduates have developed the skills necessary to creatively solve business problems that arise in transactional law.

Colorado Law currently offers numerous business law courses and specialized entrepreneurial law classes, including Accounting Issues for Lawyers, Advanced Contracts: Commercial Transactions, Advanced Legal Negotiation, Agency, Partnership and the LLC, Business Plan Preparation, Business Planning, Business Transactions, Contracts, Contract Drafting, Corporate Finance, Corporate Transactions, Deals, Entrepreneurial Finance, International Business Transactions, Venture Capital and Private Equity. Additionally, our Entrepreneurial Law Clinic allows students to provide pro bono legal services in a structured environment to a variety of early-stage companies.

Colorado Law provides an ideal setting for the study of Entrepreneurial Law, with a vibrant local start-up community, a premier research university, and seven federal laboratories. Boulder is home to many successful entrepreneurial companies in fields ranging from information and communications technologies (e.g., Symplified, SendGrid) to natural products (e.g., Wild Oats, Celestial Seasonings, Izze Beverage) to clean energy technology and renewables (e.g., Tendril Networks, OpX). Boulder boasts a tradition of entrepreneurship that ranks among the best start- up regions in the nation.

In recent years Colorado Law’s Silicon Flatirons Center has built out a series of programs – collectively called the “Entrepreneurship Initiative” – that facilitate connections between CU and the Front Range entrepreneurial community. One of Silicon Flatirons’ core objectives is to better connect the engine of a world-class research university to the Front Range start-up community, particularly within the information and communications technology sector. Under the direction of Brad Bernthal, the Director of Entrepreneurship Initiative and an Associate Clinical Professor at Colorado Law, Silicon Flatirons has established relationships with a number of companies, individuals, and organizations involved in the entrepreneurial community. It has also launched the successful Startup Colorado initiative and will be hosting the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network (focused on scaling up successful companies). These connections will provide meaningful opportunities for MSL students to augment their coursework through involvement in the start-up business community.

2. Student Learning Goals of the Proposed Degree Program

The primary goal of the proposed MSL program is to equip students to obtain jobs that would not otherwise be available to them. The program seeks to achieve this objective by

delivering critical knowledge and skills in several areas. First, MSL graduates will obtain a foundational knowledge of the U.S. legal system. This includes an understanding of how laws and regulations get developed and applied. Second, they will obtain specialized legal knowledge in their selected areas of focus. Finally, they will gain the tools necessary to conduct the legal research and draft the legal documents relevant to particular job families that have a significant legal component but are open to non-JDs.

B. Market Position, Statutory Role, and Mission of Proposed Degree Program

Policy 4-J of the University of Colorado Board of Regents sets forth a list of Concerns to be addressed by all proposals for a new degree program. This section addresses each item on that list.

1. Bona Fide Need: Student and Workforce Demand for the Proposed Program

The proposed MSL program is designed to provide students with undergraduate degrees the added skills required to obtain job positions that require targeted legal knowledge in addition to other domain expertise. As such, virtually any highly qualified person with an undergraduate degree is a potential candidate for this program. The more relevant potential constraint lies in the number and nature of employment opportunities available to graduates. Fortunately, these opportunities are both plentiful and growing.

a) Estimated Student Demand

i. Target Market

An MSL program at Colorado Law could potentially draw students from a number of different pools.

1. College Graduates Looking to Improve Employment Opportunities

Large numbers of college graduates3 enroll in masters programs of all kinds every year to improve their knowledge, skills, and employment prospects. These students typically spend at least a year on the college campus, studying full time. With the right program we could successfully draw students from this pool. Potential examples include holders of BS degrees returning to qualify as patent agents, holders of a variety of degrees returning to learn contracting skills, etc. Many of these students would bring significant work and life experience into our classrooms.

3 Colorado has a rich pool of college graduates that the program can draw from. "According to recent Census data, around 36% of Colorado’s adult population has a bachelor’s degree or more education, almost 30% higher than the national average of 28%. Thus, Colorado ranks third in the nation for college graduates, after the District of Columbia and Massachusetts." Higher Education Pays: The Initial Earnings of Graduates From Colorado’s Colleges and Universities Working in Colorado, http://highered.colorado.gov/publications/reports/wage/20130313- esm.pdf At 6 (March 2013).

2. Students Seeking Masters Degrees in Related Fields

The MSL degree could provide a compelling one-year complement for students already enrolled at CU and elsewhere in post-baccalaureate degree programs. For example, students who did not major in science or engineering during their college tenure may return to CU seeking training to prepare them for a career in patent law or technology licensing. Such students could enroll in both a MS degree program in a science or engineering discipline and the MSL degree.

3. Employed College Graduates Looking to Improve Advancement Opportunities

A number of schools offering MSL-type programs also target college graduates who are currently employed and looking to advance their careers. Students in these situations often continue working full time and look to complete their MSL degree over a period of one to two years, typically by taking at least some classes at night or online. In many cases, the students' employers will underwrite at least part of the tuition. As with the first group, many of these students would bring significant work and life experience into our classrooms.4

ii. Evidence of Student Demand for the Program

Some of the best evidence of student demand for MSL-type programs5 comes from the rapid adoption of MSL-type programs by other schools. Law schools across the board generally face the same market conditions as Colorado Law and many have initiated MSL programs. This adoption has reached sufficient levels that the ABA began tracking MSL enrollment at ABA- accredited law schools last year. According to the ABA's initial report, in the Fall of 2013, a total of 62 ABA-accredited law schools -- including 13 of the top 50 law schools (as ranked by U.S. News) -- had some form of MSL program, with a total of 1,738 students enrolled nationally. 6 Exhibit A provides an overview of some of these programs.

While each school's program tends to have its own unique features, most possess the following characteristics:

• One-year, 24+ credit hour, program • Tuition roughly the same as a year of JD studies • Foundational courses focused on providing training in legal research and writing and an overview of American law

4 Our external advisory board for alternative revenue has asked us to consider making some courses available online, or even in Denver, to broaden the appeal to this type of student. We have no plans to implement such options in the near term, but will continue to evaluate their feasibility and advisability. We have already offered at least one online course, in Transactional Drafting, during the Summer 2014 session. 5 Law schools use a wide variety of monikers to describe the Masters degrees they offer to students coming straight out of undergraduate programs. When talking about other schools' offerings, we use the term "MSL" to refer to all such programs, irrespective of their exact title. 6 Data From the 2013 Annual Questionnaire ABA-Approved Law School JD and Non JD Enrollment Data: Fall 2013, American Bar Association (posted 1/18/2014), http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/statistics.html 6

• Ability to create focused tracks out of existing 2L and 3L courses • Open to qualified college graduates with no test (LSAT, etc.) required for admission

For the reasons discussed in Section B3 below, we do not believe that the proposed Colorado Law MSL program would meaningfully duplicate any of these other programs.

iii. Enrollment Projections for First Five Years

See Table 1. We project that the program will start modestly, with six students in the first year, and grow to 15 students annually. This sort of program is relatively new to the industry in general and to Colorado Law in particular. Accordingly, we propose starting small, with an initial offering in the first academic year after the year in which the degree is approved. The initial offering would have the following characteristics:

• Identify and develop first specialty tracks (including the Patent Agent track). • Target 6 students for initial class. • Focus the initial offering on one or two specialty tracks where we have appropriate faculty interest, strong employment potential and likely student interest. • Partner with employers on the initial offering such that we have pre-commitments to hire a significant portion of the initial class (subject to acceptable performance) upon graduation or a strong indication of interest in doing so. • Deliver courses exclusively on campus, with a part-time study option only in exceptional cases. • Use existing resources, to the fullest extent possible, to deliver the program.

We will look to take what we have learned from the initial offering and grow the program to 15 MSL students by fifth year of the program. This could be accomplished in a number of ways, including:

• Adding additional students to the initial track(s) if employment prospects warrant • Adding additional specialty tracks • Build feeder relationships/joint degree programs with other schools where conditions make this appropriate (e.g., 3+1 programs with CU colleges) • Offer the program on a part-time basis to make it more accessible to students who need to work full-time while studying • Offer the program at locations other than Boulder • Create an on-line offering

These options are not mutually exclusive. Each would have to be examined carefully to determine the level of resourcing required, the revenues it could generate, and the value proposition that it would offer to students.

iv. Explanations of the Methodology and Assumptions Used to Project Enrollment and Completion Data

As mentioned above, we believe that the number and quality of employment opportunities will be the main determinant of enrollment levels. We based our enrollment projections on our level of confidence in placing MSL graduates into known positions that require a meaningful level of legal knowledge, but less than a full JD. Please see Section B1b below for a discussion of the estimated workforce demand for MSL graduates.

v. Annual Pool of Potential Applicants

The pool of potential applicants includes virtually every holder of an undergraduate degree who does not already hold a JD. The National Center for Education Statistics projects that U.S. colleges and universities will award approximately 1.8 million Bachelor degrees this year,7 with a disproportionately large share residing in Colorado.8

vi. How the Program Design Will Address Needs of Part-Time, Working Students

Working professionals who are looking to enhance their career prospects constitute a potentially significant pool of students for us to draw from. The design of the MSL program facilitates the ability of students to work part time in several ways.

First, the MSL program requires 28 credit hours to graduate, as opposed to the 30 credit hours that JD students must average annually. Six of the required credit hours take the form of two required foundational courses that we intend to deliver in August, using a boot camp format. This means that MSL students will need to average only eleven credit hours per semester, which is a bit more than two-thirds of the load that JD students carry. Many of our JD students work part time and this lesser load should give our MSL students an even greater ability to do so.

Second, MSL students may petition for an extra year to complete the requirements of the program. This would reduce their load to five or six credit hours per semester once they have completed the foundational courses.

vii. Specific Effort to Retain Under-Represented Groups Enrolling in Program

The ability to work part time during the program will make the program more accessible to individuals for whom the full-on J.D. is cost-prohibitive.

b. Workforce Demand

i. Evidence of Need in Workforce for Colorado Graduates of this Field

7 http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372. 8 Colorado ranks third in the nation for college graduates. Higher Education Pays: The Initial Earnings of Graduates From Colorado’s Colleges and Universities Working in Colorado, http://highered.colorado.gov/publications/reports/wage/20130313-esm.pdf At 6 (March 2013). 8

The economy has evolved in ways that create at least two significant sets of employment opportunities for professionals with legal training short of a full JD. The first set encompasses legal tasks formerly performed by people with JDs while the second set is comprised of business and technical roles that now that require some legal knowledge to be effective.

1. Legal Tasks Formerly Performed by People with JDs

Certain legal tasks that formerly were performed by people with JDs have become sufficiently standardized that they can be and are routinely performed by people without JDs. Examples of these tasks include negotiating contracts, conducting diligence, preparing patent applications, etc. Non-lawyers in those positions, for the most part, have picked up a basic understanding of the laws relevant to their positions through on the job training.

These roles exist in large numbers and appear to be growing at a faster pace than traditional roles for lawyers with a JD.9 The employment opportunities here appear especially good if the person has a combination of legal skills and other complementary skills, such as technical skills or financial skills.

For example, Microsoft has a "deal desk" that reportedly employs close to 1,000 professionals.10 The deal desk structures the financial aspects of deals and handles basic contract negotiations. In Colorado, both government agencies and companies of virtually every size and in virtually every industry, employ non-lawyers to handle a wide variety of contracting, including commercial sales, public sector sales, procurement, land right acquisitions, etc.11 The number of these jobs is impressive. On March 9, 2014, Indeed.Com claimed to have 1060 contract manager job postings in Colorado with an estimated salary of $50,000 or higher, with 95 positions having an estimated salary of $110,000+.12

Law firms, law departments, and alternative legal service providers continue to increase the ways in which they use non-lawyers to help deliver legal services. For example, the IP groups at law firms and law departments increasingly use non-lawyers as "patent agents" to assist in the preparation, filing, and prosecution of patent applications.13 Well over 100 employers participated in last year's Patent Law Interview Program, sponsored by Loyola of Chicago, to recruit people for such roles.14 While some of the reported 400+ applicants who participated in this event were law students, many of the roles being recruited for could have been filled by technical people with legal training short of a full JD.15 These roles reportedly have starting salaries of $70,000+.16

9 See William D. Henderson, A Blueprint for Change, 40 Pepp. L. Rev. 461 (2013) (employment data shows that law firm employment declined between 2004 and 2010 while employment in "all other legal services" grew by 80 percentage points. 10 Interview with Morris Kremen, former Deputy General Counsel at Microsoft. 11 Examples of Colorado entities known to be employing non-lawyers in these functions include Encana, UCAR, VMware, DaVita, Oracle, Lockheed Martin, GNIP, SendGrid, LogRhythm, etc. 12 http://www.indeed.com/q-Contract-Manager-l-Colorado-jobs.html. 13 Interview with Michael Drapkin, IP Partner at Holland & Hart, LLP. 14 http://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/law/career/pdfs/participating_employers.pdf 15 Interview with Michael Drapkin. 16 Id.

2. Non-legal Roles that Require Legal Knowledge

An increasing number of non-legal roles now require the employee to have some legal knowledge to be effective. Examples of these roles include HR specialists,17 compliance officers (e.g., in natural resources, financial services, health care, etc.), and IT/cyber security officers. A variety of executives on the Alternative Revenue Advisory Board of the Dean’s Advisory Council of Colorado Law confirmed that their companies have these types of legally oriented business roles and that applicants possessing a relevant MSL would have a significant advantage in the hiring process.

Overall, we believe that substantial employment opportunities exist for graduates of a targeted MSL program. We also intend to take a number of concrete steps to ensure that those opportunities become realities for our graduates. These steps include:

• Focusing a significant percentage of the inaugural class of students in one or two core areas where we have a critical mass of employers pre-committed to hiring out of that pool; • Making employment opportunities part of the criteria that we use when evaluating the creation of new tracks; • Providing placement assistance for our MSL graduates; and • Measuring employment outcomes for our MSL graduates.

3. CU Law’s Competitive Advantage Against National MSL Offerings

To date, over 60 U.S. universities have adopted MSL-type programs. We believe, however, that for a variety of reasons, Colorado Law's proposed MSL program will not be duplicative in any material way.

First, the market for MSL programs stands to be more of a regional one than a national one. The market for JD programs is a mixed national/regional market. JD degrees from a small number of top-ranked national schools allow their holders to obtain quality employment anywhere in the country. But within any particular geographic area, the dominant share of quality jobs go to holders of JDs from the leading regional schools.18 Indeed, 79% of our 2013 graduates obtained employment in Colorado after graduating. The jobs sought by MSL holders likely will be less prestigious than those sought by JD holders (e.g., patent agent position versus patent lawyer position), making it even more likely that employment outcomes will turn on regional perceptions of the degree's value and the network it provides than on national rankings.

17 Colorado has in excess of 12,500 HR specialists working in positions where some measure of legal knowledge would be useful, and the Bureau of Labor forecasts that these roles will grow by 13% by 2020. Occupational Employment Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/oes/#data). 18 For example, DU (29%) and CU (20%) account for roughly half of the SuperLawyers in Colorado. Harvard is a distant third at 3%. Here's Where America's 'Super Lawyers' Went to Law School, http://www.businessinsider.com/where-do-superlawyers-come-from-2014-1. 10

Second, for many of these same reasons, the market for MSL programs stands to be more of a set of markets for MSLs focused on a particular track, rather than a single, homogenous, MSL market. In the 24+ credit hours that most MSL programs cover, it simply isn't possible to give students a "one-size-fits-all" education that would enable them for any sort of position where some legal knowledge is required. Rather, the workplace is likely to demand specialized learning focused in a particular domain that is largely non-transferable to other areas. This means that in order to have duplication, one requires that multiple schools within close geographic proximity offer the same specialty tracks.

Accordingly, we do not see any meaningful potential for duplication with any programs offered outside of Colorado. See Section C3b below for a discussion of potential duplication with the program offered by DU.

i. Preparing Students for Grad or Professional School, Opportunities for Admission to Grad or Professional Program

Not Applicable.

ii. Preparing Students for Specific Occupations or Professions: Demand and Employment Information

See Section A1 above.

2. Role and Mission Criteria

The Colorado General Assembly states in C.R.S. 23-20-101(1) (a) the role and mission of the University of Colorado as follows:

The Boulder campus of the University of Colorado shall be a comprehensive graduate research university with selective admission standards. The Boulder campus of the University of Colorado shall offer a comprehensive array of undergraduate, masters, and doctoral degree programs. The Boulder campus of the University of Colorado has exclusive authority to offer graduate programs in law. The Colorado commission on higher education, in consultation with the board of regents, shall designate those graduate level programs that are the primary responsibility of the Boulder campus of the University of Colorado. The university has the responsibility to provide on a statewide basis, utilizing when possible and appropriate the faculty and facilities of other educational institutions, those graduate level programs. The commission shall include in its funding recommendations a general fund support for these programs.

The proposed MSL degree program serves the role and mission of the Boulder campus as set forth in this statute. First, the proposed MSL program will add to the comprehensive array of degree programs. Second, the MSL proposal represents a graduate degree specifically in the area of law for which the Boulder campus has exclusive statutory authority. Third, the proposed degree 11

will use the facilities of the Wolf Law Building exclusively, more fully utilizing this facility and the investment made in it by students, donors, and the State of Colorado.

The proposed degree program also is squarely in accord with the University’s Flagship 2030 strategic plan, which aims to provide “a range of options for earning CU-Boulder degrees with greater emphasis on the master’s degrees as a primary track within 10 years.” The MSL degree will provide an additional category of legally trained professionals, for the benefit of Colorado employers as well as to employers and legal clients around the world.

a) Congruent With Role and Mission of the Campus

See above.

b) Supporting Campus’s Mission

See above.

c) Fitting With Campus/College’s Strategic Academic Plan

See above. d) Particular Strengths in the Proposed Program Area

See Section A1 above.

3. Duplication with Programs at Other Colorado Institutions

The State of Colorado houses only two law schools, ours and the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law (DU). While DU offers several similar degrees, we think our programs are unlikely to duplicate one another much, if at all. Any duplication that might occur will not interfere with the likely success of our program, for reasons discussed below in Section c. a) Unique Characteristics/Features of This Program That Are Not Duplicative That Justify the Program

As discussed above, our proposed program differs meaningfully from the programs offered by out-of-state schools in that it is located in Colorado and focuses on the jobs available in the Colorado region. As such, the specialty tracks we create will center on the skill sets most important to our region's economy and will leverage the unique strengths of Colorado Law.

b) Graduate/Professional Offerings at Other Institutions that May Appear To Duplicate and Explanation of (1) How Proposed Program Does Not Duplicate Other Offerings or (2) Why a Duplicate or Similar Program is Justified.

See Section B3 above.

c) How Implementation Will Affect Other Institutions in the State

1. All Similar Existing Programs Offered in the State and Region

DU offers MSL degrees in three areas: taxation, legal administration, and environmental/natural resources. These programs follow most of the standard characteristics of MSL programs nationally, with the exception that the Denver Sturm College of Law (DU) appears to place MSL students directly into upper level courses without offering a foundational base.

2. Why existing programs cannot meet the needs of prospective students (and employers) in the geographic area served

We do not foresee any meaningful duplication with DU's MSL offerings for several reasons.

First, as mentioned above, schools tend to focus their MSL programs on their core areas of strength. DU currently offers MSL degrees only in Legal Administration, Taxation and Natural Resources and Environmental Law and Policy (NRE). Out of these three areas, the only likely focus for Colorado Law is NRE. The market for NRE-tracked MSL programs remains quite immature, making it likely that the curriculum offered by each institution would emphasize different things.

Second, our history in the JD market shows that the Colorado market is big enough for both schools, both generally and in the NRE space. Colorado Law and DU both offer sweeping JD programs and specializations in NRE, including LLM programs. Both schools have done well (top 100 rankings) despite the presence of the other.

At the end of the day, what really matters is not who else is in the market, but what value proposition a provider delivers to its students. We have the means to deliver a compelling value proposition to our MSL students. Research indicates that there are a substantial, and growing, number of positions available in Colorado that require basic legal knowledge and pay starting salaries of $50,000+ with strong advancement potential. As long as we focus our offerings appropriately, and back them up with solid placement assistance, we should be able to offer our MSL students a strong return on their investment.

4. Statutory Requirements

The proposed program complies with all statutory requirements.

C. Program Quality and Institutional Capacity

1. Admission, Transfer and Graduation Standards

The MSL program will be governed by the Law School Rules and the Student Honor Code except where degree requirements, admission criteria, and the standards for grading MSL students differ as described below.

a) Admission Standards

Most schools offering MSL programs follow a fairly standard set of admission requirements. Students must hold at least an undergraduate degree. The required application package typically includes the application (including essay), transcripts, and recommendations. MSL schools typically do not require an entrance exam (e.g., no LSAT required).

Consistent with the high standards of the JD and LL.M programs, we will maintain high minimum standards. We expect to require at least a 3.0 undergraduate GPA and standardized test scores (definitely LSAT and GRE and perhaps GMAT for certain related tracks) will be strongly favored but not required. We will also include at least one admissions essay and, again for some tracks, a writing sample. For applicants who do not speak English as a first language, we will require a TOEFL or equivalent score.

In addition, we will add requirements as appropriate. For example, if we were to create a track that gave students a path toward employment as patent agents, we would need to require that applicants for that track have an appropriate technical degree.

b) Transfer Students

No transfer applications are contemplated for this twelve-month degree program.

c) Enrollment Limits

1. Restrictions

As described below, we intend to limit enrollment as necessary to meet the accreditation requirements of the American Bar Association. We do not anticipate that these limitations will be material.

2. Reasons for Restrictions

The University of Colorado Law School is accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA). The ABA’s Council of the Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association (the “Council”) is the United States Department of Education’s recognized accrediting agency for programs, like ours, that lead to the JD, which is the first professional degree in law. The Council approves Law Schools that meet the ABA Standards in order to allow graduates to sit for the bar examination and practice law in the fifty states.

Standard 308 of the ABA Standards state that an ABA-Approved law school may not establish a degree program in addition to its JD degree program unless the school is fully approved, and the additional degree program will not detract from a law school’s ability to maintain a sound JD degree program. To comply with this requirement, we will keep the size of the MSL program small relative to the JD program, to decrease the possibility that MSL demands on courses or other resources will impinge in any way on the needs of our JD students.

d) Continuation and Graduation Standards

MSL programs typically require the student to complete 24+ credit hours in order to graduate. We propose that a Colorado Law MSL program require 28 credit hours, two more credit hours than required for obtaining an LL.M degree, but without the required thesis. We propose that students initially be obligated to complete the course requirements in one year, allowing for part-time options in exceptional cases and in the future.

1. If different From Campus/College How and Why Different?

Not applicable.

2. Curriculum Description and Assessment Process

We propose two significant curricular components to the MSL program: a foundational component and a specialty track. This dual component model mirrors the approach taken by most law schools offering this type of degree.

Every MSL student will take two foundational courses, a "Legal Research & Writing for MSL Students" course, and an “Introduction to Law” course. These courses will likely be taught by existing Colorado Law Faculty who would be compensated for an overload. The legal writing and research course would be solely for MSL students and would not impact our existing legal writing and research courses for JD students. It would offer material similar to what we offer to JD students, but with an emphasis on the types of legal writing and research most relevant to the targeted employment opportunities.

The other foundational course on an “Introduction to American Law” would provide a broad overview of the American legal system. Such a course would draw from the traditional 1L curriculum, perhaps sampling concepts from Torts, Property, Constitutional Law, etc. It would also expose students to the common law, statutory interpretation, and the administrative state. Finally, it would train students “how to think like a lawyer,” for example exposing them to deductive, inductive, and analogical reasoning.

In addition to taking the two foundational courses, each MSL student would pursue a specialty track that focuses on a particular industry or job family. We will define the initial specialty tracks prior to launching the program and anticipate that the first tracks will relate to the three areas for which we currently grant LL.M degrees: Natural Resources/Environmental/Energy, Business & Entrepreneurship, and Intellectual Property & Information Technology. In particular, we have identified one track for which the case for inclusion is particularly strong: a track for training scientists and engineers to qualify them to sit for the patent bar and work as a patent agent. We describe this track in greater detail in Exhibit B.

For this and other tracks, students would be required to take courses that satisfy the requirements set out by faculty directors. All or nearly all of these courses will be drawn from the preexisting JD curriculum, and MSL students would participate in them alongside the JD students.

As appropriate, faculty directors will also allow students to enroll in relevant courses offered by other departments and colleges on campus.

We have a rich history of interdisciplinary engagement to suggest that non-law students will be able to compete—and indeed thrive—in elective classes alongside JD students. We have enrolled literally scores of Masters students from programs across campus such as the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program and the Environmental Studies Program into our advanced elective classes. In our experience, many if not most of these students have performed extremely well in these classes, not only considering they had not had formal legal training before, but even compared to full-time JD students. In some cases, non-JD students performed at or near the very tops of their law school classes. We would expect similar performance from MSL students, possibly even better performance considering these are students who self-select into a program of legal training.

Tracks will be approved only upon the application of at least one faculty member willing to take on the responsibility and burden of serving as director of the new specialty track. It is expected that tracks will have the support of more than one faculty member. Among the criteria that successful applications will be expected to meet are proof of: (i) reasonable employment prospects for students receiving the degree, (ii) the ability to meet resource requirements, and (iii) likely applicant interest.

Although most tracks will probably be drawn around areas of substantive legal disciplines (e.g., the three listed above), tracks may also be crafted along job responsibilities or career roles (e.g., Contract Manager, Compliance Officer, Patent Agent, etc.).

In extraordinary circumstances, we would allow MSL students the latitude to craft their own specialty from among our curricular offerings, but only with the full support and direction of a sponsoring faculty member.

a) Proposed Program Requirements

1. Total Credit Hours

MSL programs typically require the student to complete 24+ credit hours in order to graduate. We propose that a Colorado Law MSL program require 28 credit hours.

2. Credit Hour Distribution

We propose that students initially be obligated to complete the course requirements in one year, allowing for part-time options in exceptional cases and in the future.

3. Methods of Delivering the Program

The curriculum will be delivered primarily through standard classroom sessions. As described above, the two foundational courses will be for MSL students only. MSL students will participate alongside JD students in the remaining courses. The way in which MSL courses get

16 delivered will evolve over time as part of our process of continually improving the ways in which we provide legal education.

4. Field Experience

Some of the twenty-eight credits required for the MSL may also be satisfied by relevant field experience depending upon the specialty track chosen by the student. Colorado Law currently offers our JD students nine clinics and a broad range of externships and internships. MSL students would be eligible to participate in any of these offerings that align with their specialization track and skill sets. In addition, we will develop additional field experience opportunities specific to specific MSL specialization tracks. For example, we envision that MSL students seeking to become patent agents will have an opportunity to intern with the University's Technology Transfer Office or the new Patent and Trademark Office in Denver.

5. Other Pertinent Aspects of the Curriculum

Not applicable.

6. Similarities/Differences Compared to the Usual Curriculum in This Field

As mentioned above, the market for MSL programs is an immature one and the design of many of these programs remains somewhat fluid. That said, a significant number of schools offering MSL programs use the same design that we are proposing -- a small number of foundational courses coupled with a targeted specialty track. These schools include Northwestern, Notre Dame, and the University of Pennsylvania.

A small number of schools, including the University of San Diego, offer "generic" MSLs whereby students spend a year taking a broad sampling of courses, somewhat akin to the first year of a JD program. Based upon our research, we believe that this approach offers graduates far fewer employment opportunities than the specialty track model.

In short, our design is consistent with the emerging best practice.

b) Program Courses

1. List of All Courses That Support This Program

As mentioned above, this program is built out of two new foundational courses and a suite of existing JD courses. The new courses to be created are:

• LAWS **** Introduction to American Legal System • LAWS **** Introduction to American Legal Research, Writing, and Reasoning

The specialty tracks that build on the two new foundational courses will be built entirely out of our existing JD curriculum. Accordingly, our entire course catalog potentially supports the proposed MSL program.19

2. New Courses Created for the Program See above.

c) Sample Curriculum

1. Required Courses

See above.

2. Tracks/Options—Sample Curricula

A sample curricula for a potential specialty track for Patent Agents, described more fully in Exhibit B, would require:

o Foundational Layer (6 credit hours) (Summer before advanced coursework) . Intro to Law (new) . Legal Research & Writing (new)

o Upper Level Courses (22 credit hours) . Introduction to Intellectual Property Law . Patent Law . Patent Litigation . Intellectual Property and Technology Contracting . Intellectual Property Counseling and Prosecution . Law and Economics of the Information Age . Computer and the Law . Technology Law & Policy Clinic

d) Assessment Plan of Proposed Degree (related to student goals in Section A2)

We intend to assess the program regularly in the following areas:

• Number of Applicants • Quality of Applicants • Post-Graduation Employment Rates • Quality of Post-Graduation Employment • Performance in Coursework Relative to JD Cohort • Periodic Surveys of Participating Students & Faculty

19 http://lawweb.colorado.edu/courses/courses.jsp. 18

• For Appropriate Tracks, Performance in Externally-Administered Credentialed Examinations, such as the Patent Bar (for Patent Agents), the Certified Information Systems Security Professionals Exam (for Information Security/Compliance experts) or the International Association of Privacy Professionals Exam (for Privacy/Compliance experts).

We intend to develop a set of metrics in each of these areas and report on them no less than annually. Using the input from these metrics we will, as needed, adjust the content of specialty tracks, adjust the vehicles used to deliver the curricula, adopt new specialty tracks, and take any additional corrective actions that may be warranted.

1. Goals and Objectives of the Program for Student Learning and What Knowledge, Intellectual Capacities, and Skills Will Be Developed See Section A2 above.

2. Assessment Tools That Will Measure How Well The Program Fulfills These Goals and Objectives

See above.

1. How the Department Will Use Student Outcomes Information and Any Feedback From Employers, Licenser, or Testing Scores to Change Teaching Methods/Curriculum

See above.

3. Professional Requirements or Evaluations

a) Regional/Professional Accrediting Association or Licensing Requirements That Helped Shape Curriculum and Effect Of Requirements

The ABA accredits the University of Colorado Law School. Colorado Law has been on the ABA list of approved law schools since the ABA’s first publication in 1923 as evidence that the law school also meets all ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools (“ABA Standards”).

However, ABA approval does not extend to MSL programs. Instead, the ABA Standards provide that an ABA-approved law school may not establish one without first obtaining the acquiescence of the ABA Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar (the “Council”). Colorado Law is in the process of obtaining this initial acquiescence, the only requirement of which is a demonstration that the non-JD program will have “no adverse impact” on the JD program and degree.

Under the Council rules, as a fully approved law school, Colorado Law will be evaluated at least every seven years. The objective of this review will be to “provide a careful and comprehensive evaluation of [our] law school and its compliance with the [ABA] Standards for

Approved Law Schools.” A current copy of the Standards is available on the ABA website at www.abanet.org/olegaled.

b) Qualification of Faculty

Most of the classes students will take toward this degree will be upper-level law courses currently taught in the JD program by our full-time and adjunct faculty. Bios for those professors appear at http://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/allFaculty.jsp. See Exhibit C for a listing of faculty who will teach regularly in the program.

We will create two new courses, Introduction to the American Legal System and Introduction to Legal Research, Reasoning, and Writing. We have not yet decided who would teach those courses, although several professors on our faculty have volunteered to do so.

Masters students will work most closely with subject-matter experts in their designated specialty track areas. Because we do not yet know what specialty tracks we will offer, we cannot specify specific professors who will participate. But because we anticipate that some of the initial track will be drawn from three areas—natural resources/environmental/energy law, intellectual property and technology law, and entrepreneurial law—we include pointers to short vitae for faculty members in those three areas.

4. Institutional Factors

The first and most important benefits of the program to Colorado Law will be financial. We would hope to increase our revenue to address pressures on the market for legal education. Our goal would be not only to allow us to continue to underwrite the quality of education and scholarship for which we are well-known but also to allow us to continue to grow and improve.

As the MSL will focus on specific specialty tracks, we would hope to strengthen the focus we have had on building world-class programs. MSL students with proper skills and training will assist our faculty in cutting-edge research and bring skills and experiences of the kind that tend to be lacking among our JD students. We would expect that these benefits would redound to the law school in a number of different possible ways, including helping to create opportunities for our JD students; new collaborations for centers, programs, and initiatives; and bringing more interdisciplinary perspectives into our classes.

a) How Implementation Will Contribute to Achieving the Department and Campus’s Diversity Goals

The Law School is committed to maintaining a diverse and inclusive community of outstanding students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends. We take this goal seriously and work hard in our marketing and admissions decisions to find the very best students who bring a wide variety of lived experiences to our community. We would extend this goal and these practices to the marketing and admissions practices we put in place for the MSL degree. We are encouraged by the opportunity the MSL gives us to recruit students with diverse backgrounds.

b) How Implementation Will Affect Other Instructional, Research, or Service Programs (in the institution & other campuses)

By its very nature, the MSL program should have a positive impact on other programs within the University system. The MSL program is designed to provide targeted legal knowledge that complements what students have learned in different colleges, as undergraduates or as graduate students. This complementary knowledge will vest those students with the ability to have better career tracks in their chosen fields.

c) How Implementation Will Affect Existing Resources (library, computer, and laboratory)

We do not anticipate any additional demand will be placed on the Law School’s library by this program. The number of students planned for this program should not add any significant burden on the IT or other infrastructure resources of the Law School or campus.

d) Anticipated Formal Relationships With Other Parties (e.g., inter- institutional arrangements, resource sharing, cooperative programs, clinical affiliations, etc).

We anticipate that over time formal relationships will likely develop between Colorado Law and other schools around specific MSL tracks. For example, we could imagine potentially partnering with the College of Engineering and Applied Science to develop formal pathways for engineering students interest in persuading a career as a patent agent or in IT Security or Privacy Compliance. Similarly, we might develop a relationship with the Anschutz Health Science Center focused on training MSL-bearing health care compliance or contract experts. A third possible connection is a degree in Energy compliance with Environmental Studies or RASEI. We also could easily develop cooperative relationships with our Technology Transfer Office and the local branch office of the Patent and Trademark Office.

5. Physical Capacity and Needs

See Table 2. Colorado Law can accommodate the projected levels of enrollment within its existing facilities. As explained in section B2, the only incremental courses being offered are the two MSL foundational courses. Delivering these courses will require access to one classroom for six credit hours of teaching. At approximately 184,000 square feet (five floors), the Wolf Law Building has sufficient space to accommodate this added demand. In fact, by educating more students within the existing space, the proposed program will increase the cost efficiency and utilization of the Wolf Law Building while providing the highest quality educational program.

All MSL courses, including both the foundational courses and the MSL specialty track courses, will be delivered by current Colorado Law faculty. Accordingly, no additional faculty offices will be needed.

Each MSL student will have IT needs comparable to those of the typical JD student, namely a student-provided laptop, access to email, etc. Colorado Law would plan on providing the MSL

21 students the same, limited IT support that we deliver to our JD students. Our existing resources (physical and otherwise) are sufficient to accommodate the very minor additional demand that would come from 6 - 15 additional students.

The MSL students also will require access to our Law Library, which is housed on three floors of the Wolf Law Building and occupies 58,465 square feet. The Law Library is the strongest and largest collection of legal resources in the Rocky Mountain region, and it compares favorably with libraries of law schools in the top tier nationwide, boasting over 720,000 volumes, microform equivalents, and cataloged electronic resources. These holdings will more than meet the needs of the proposed degree program.

6. Cost Description and Source of Funds

See Table 3 for a summary of the program's projected costs and revenues, which were estimated as described below.

Source of Funds

We intend to fund the proposed MSL program out of the tuition revenues that it will generate. Most schools price their MSL programs at levels comparable to what they charge for one year of JD studies. Pricing will be based on a per-credit hour model.

This approach to pricing is not surprising. MSL courses typically are taught using the same resources (facilities, professors, etc.) that are used to deliver JD courses. Accordingly, the cost structure for the two programs is quite similar.

As we have for the LL.M, we propose setting the initial tuition and fees for the program at the one-year cost of our JD program, which is $31,548 for residents and $38,334 for non-residents. If we decide to allow students to participate on a part-time basis we will need to modify our pricing model accordingly. At projected enrollment levels, this will generate revenues ranging from $189,288-$230,004 in year one to $473,220-$575,010 in year five. The following table projects total revenue based on a projection of in-state and out-of-state enrollees within those ranges.

Projected Program Tuition and Fee Revenues

Year In-State In-State Out-of-State Out-of-State Total Enrollment Revenues Enrollment Revenues Revenue 1 4 $126,192 2 $76,668 $202,860 2 5 $157,740 3 $115,002 $272,742 3 7 $220,836 3 $115,002 $335,838 4 8 $252,384 4 $153,336 $405,720 5 10 $315,480 5 $191,670 $507,150

The following table presents the same data but breaks total revenue down into law school revenue and campus revenue retained shares.

Projected Revenue Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Enrollment Revenue Cash Revenue: Tuition and Fees $202,860 $272,742 $335,838 $405,720 $507,150 Campus Revenue Retained ($50,715) ($68,186) ($83,960) ($101,430) ($126,787) Share at 25% Other Revenue - - - - Federal Grants - - - - - Corporate Grants/Donations - - - - - Other fund sources - - - - - Institutional Reallocation - - - - - (explain) TOTAL PROGRAM $152,145 $204,556 $251,878 $304,290 $380,363 REVENUE

Costs

At the projected levels of enrollment, we estimate the incremental costs to be approximately $100,000 per annum. These costs have several components.

First, we will need to create and deliver two new courses, totaling six credit hours, as described in Section B2. We intend to use existing faculty members to carry out this task and to serve as academic advisors for our MSL students. We intend to compensate them for the overload at rates comparable to what we pay adjunct faculty and have budgeted $25,000 annually for this line item.

Second, the MSL program will require resources for program administration. This includes a part-time program director and offsetting a small amount of additional administrative work for certain staff members by using additional paid student hours, outside vendors, etc. We have budgeted $45,000 to cover these items.

Third, we will need resources to promote and advertise the program. By focusing the specialty tracks of the program on areas of strength in our JD program we should be able to achieve synergies in our promotional efforts. Accordingly, we have budgeted $5,000 for these activities.

Fourth, we may require resources to offer scholarship assistance to exceptional students in extraordinary circumstances. We have budgeted $20,000 for this item.

Fifth, the success of the program will depend in large part on our ability to generate high rates of placement post-graduation. Accordingly, we have budgeted $10,000 in incremental resourcing for our Career Development office.

Finally, while we believe that our MSL students can leverage many of the multitude of programs and activities available to our JD students, we also have budgeted an additional $10,000 in student development funds to supplement or expand these opportunities as needed.

Item Annual Cost Core Courses & Academic Advising $25,000 Program Administration $30,000 Promotion & Advertising $5,000 Scholarships $20,000 Placement $10,000 Student Development $10,000 Total $100,000

We do not anticipate any additional incremental costs as the projected levels of enrollment. There are no capital costs, no additional requirements on our library, and MSL students will, with the exception of the two foundational courses described above, participate in existing classes alongside our JD students.

As explained above, we expect revenues from the program to far exceed these projected incremental costs.

a) Operating Costs

See above.

b) Capital Start-Up Needs

None. See above.

c) Written Statement From Dean Verifying Adequacy of Resources to Support New Program, As Outlined in the Program’s Budget, and Confirming That Projected Resources Are Reasonable

See Exhibit E.

7. Other Information Deemed Relevant to Support New Program Proposals

As mentioned above, the market for legal services is in an unprecedented state of flux. The ways that legal services get delivered have changed dramatically in the past five years, with increasing emphases being placed on process, technology, and paraprofessionals. These changes have hit law firms hard, and they now hire far fewer newly minted JDs than in the past. Many in the industry believe that these changes are structural rather than cyclical, meaning that law schools

that are not taking steps to grapple with what some are calling “the New Normal” in law are in a state of denial.

At Colorado Law, we believe that these changes are real, but that they also present an opportunity for schools that are entrepreneurial to adapt, provide their students with tomorrow's skill sets, and deliver superior value. We have evolved our JD curriculum in numerous ways to do just that. Market reaction has been favorable, as we were one of the very few law schools nationally to be able to increase enrollment in 2013 without decreasing admission standards in a material way.

We also believe, however, that the economy will continue to demand an increasing number of professionals who possess targeted legal knowledge, but less than a full JD. While no one knows what the future will bring, significant indications exist that this could be an important growth market for legal education. Implementing an MSL program now would allow us to get into that market at an early stage, with potentially significant upside revenue potential.

Implementing an MSL program also helps provide us with a hedge against future deterioration in the market for JDs. While we strongly believe that we can produce JDs who have the skills required to thrive in the new market, the world is moving quickly and much of it is out of our control. Having an MSL program would diversify our offerings and make us less vulnerable to changes in any particular sector.

8. Reviewer Comments

See Exhibit D.

D. List of Tables and Exhibits

Table 1: Enrollment Projections Table 2: Physical Capacity Estimates Table 3: Projected New Expenses for New Program

Exhibit A: Partial listing of law schools that now offer MSL-type programs Exhibit B: Potential Specialty Track for Patent Agents Exhibit C: Faculty Curriculum Vitae Exhibit D: External Reviewer Comments Exhibit E: Dean’s Statement

TABLE 1: ENROLLMENT PROJECTIONS

Name of Program: Masters of Studies in Law

Name of Institution: University of Colorado Law School

DEFINITIONS: Academic year is the period beginning July 1 and concluding June 30.

Headcount projections represent an unduplicated count of those students officially admitted to the program and enrolled at the institution during the academic year.

FTE is defined as the full-time equivalent number of those students majoring in the program, regardless of the classes enrolled, during the academic year.

Program graduate is defined as a student who finishes all academic program requirements and graduates with a formal award within a particular academic year.

SPECIAL NOTES:

To calculate the annual headcount enrollment, add new enrollees to the previous year headcount and subtract the number who graduated in the preceding year. Adjust by the anticipated attrition rate.

To calculate FTE, multiply the number of students times the projected number of credit hours students will be typically enrolled in per year and divide by 30.

• Not applicable given the nature of this program

The data in each column is the annual unduplicated number of declared program majors. Since this table documents program demand, course enrollments are not relevant and shall not be included in the headcount or FTE data.

Yr Yr Yr Yr Yr Full

1 2 3 4 5 Implementation 1- In-state 4 5 7 8 10 10 a Headcount

1- Out-of-State 2 3 3 4 5 5 b Headcount Program 2 6 8 10 12 15 15 Headcount Program 3 6 8 10 12 15 15 Graduates

Attach a brief description explaining the specific source data for projecting the program headcount (e.g., actual enrollment in a similar program at a comparable college).

See main body of proposal. In addition, the ABA reports that in the Fall of 2013, 24 law schools had MSL enrollments of 15 students or higher, including DU (110), Emory (106), University of Wisconsin (59), University of Oregon (58), UC Berkeley (39), UCLA (38), Arizona State (27), and Boston University (18). Data From the 2013 Annual Questionnaire ABA-Approved Law School JD and Non JD Enrollment Data: Fall 2013, American Bar Association (posted 1/18/2014), http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/statistics.html. s/Phil Weiser Oct. 22, 2014 Dean ______Signature of Person who completed the Enrollment Table Date

Title:

Date:

TABLE 2: PHYSICAL CAPACITY ESTIMATES

Name of Program: Masters of Studies in Law

Name of Institution: University of Colorado Law School

Purpose: This table documents the physical capacity of the institution to offer the program and/or the plan for achieving the capacity. Complete A or B. ______Part A

I certify that this proposed degree program can be fully implemented and accommodate the enrollment projections provided in this proposal without requiring additional space or renovating existing space during the first five years.

s/Dennis Russell Oct. 22, 2014 Law School Director of Operations ______Campus Capital Construction Officer Date

Part B

Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Column 5 Column 6 ASSIGNABLE TOTAL AVAIL- NEW LEASE/ REVENUE SQUARE FEET NEEDED ABLE RENOVATION CONSTRUCTION RENT SOURCE* TYPE OF SPACE Immed. Future Immed. Future

Classroom

Instructional Lab

Offices

Study Special/General Use

Other:

TOTAL * Capital Construction Fund (CCF), Research Building Revolving Fund (RBRF), Gift (GIFT), Grant (GR), Auxiliary Fund (AUX)

Attach a narrative describing the institutional contingency plan that addresses the space requirements of the proposed program or alternative delivery options, in the event that the request for capital construction or renovation is not approved.

______Signature of Person who completed the Institutional Physical Capacity Table Title Date

TABLE 3: PROJECTED NEW EXPENSES FOR NEW PROGRAM (Does not include an inflation factor when projecting over 5 years)

I. Expenses

Below, list all new expenses that will be incurred over the first five years (by year) of the new program, broken into the categories provided. Following the table, provide a narrative that, for each category of expense, identifies the source of funds that will cover these expenses: tuition, COF or fee-for-service funds, clinical income, and endowment, gift, grant, or contract funds.

If expenses are to be covered by reallocation of existing resources, specify what activities and costs will be discontinued and how existing resources/responsibilities will be reallocated. Be quite specific.

Will any new cash revenue be generated by this new program? How much and from what sources?

ESTIMATED AMOUNT in DOLLARS

YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Operating Expenses

1 Faculty $25,000 $25,000 $25,000 $25,000 $25,000 Financial Aid specific 2 to program $20,000 $20,000 $20,000 $20,000 $20,000

3 Instructional Materials 0 0 0 0 0 Program 4 Administration $45,000 $45,000 $45,000 $45,000 $45,000

5 Rent/Lease 0 0 0 0 0 Laboratory & Other 6 Operating Costs $10,0000 $10,000 $10,000 $10,000 $10,000 Total Operating 7 Expenses $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 Program Start-Up Expenses

8 Capital construction 0 0 0 0 0 Equipment 9 Acquisitions 0 0 0 0 0

10 Library Acquisitions 0 0 0 0 0 Total Program Start- 11 Up Exp. 0 0 0 0 0 TOTAL PROGRAM EXPENSES $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000 $100,000

Notes:

1. Includes delivering core courses and serving as academic advisors for MSL students. 4. Includes part-time program director ($25,000), program promotion and advertising ($5,000), incremental load on Career Development Office ($10,000) and incremental load on administrative staff ($5,000). 6. Includes student development funds.

A narrative of each of these expense items appears in the main body of this proposal.

II. Narrative Explaining How Costs are to be Covered

Costs will be covered by the tuition and fee revenues generated by the proposed program. Projected revenues, based upon the projected enrollment levels set forth in Table 1, are as follows:

Projected Program Revenues

The following table presents the same data but breaks total revenue down into law school revenue and campus revenue retained shares.

III. Dean’s Statement.

Attach a statement from the Dean verifying Adequacy of Resources to Support New Program and confirming that the projected resources and reallocations are reasonable.

See Exhibit E.

Exhibit A:

Partial Listing of Schools Offering MSL-Type Programs

PARTIAL LISTING OF SCHOOLS OFFERING MSL-TYPE PROGRAMS20

Law School MSL Program NRE21 BE22 IP/ Report Tuition Telecom ed 2013 23 Enroll ment24

Yale Masters of Studies in Law N N N 2 $52,400 New York University Masters of Studies in Law in N N N 0 $2,217/ Taxation credit University of Masters in Law & Health N N N 0 $51,304 Pennsylvania Northwestern Master of Science in Law N Y Y 2 $46,000 University Cornell University Masters of Science (Legal N N N 0 $57,270 Studies) Washington Masters of Judicial Studies N N N 9 $48,345 University in St. Louis University of Notre Masters of Science in Patent N N Y 4 $46,010 Dame Law Arizona State Master of Legal Studies N N Y 27 $31,200 University - $39,200 University of Georgia Master in the Study of Law N N N 0 $18,740 - $36,410 Ohio State University Master in the Study of Law N N N 6 $28,010 - $42,962 Wake Forest Master of Studies in Law N N N 16 $39,976 University Emory Law Juris Masters Y N Y 106 $47,250 University of Arizona Masters of Legal Studies Y Y N 7 $18,000 University of Master of Studies in Law N Y Y 12 $41,200 California (Hastings) University of Denver Master of Resources Law Y N N 110 $33,513 Studies University of Master of Legal Studies Y N N 11 $19,973 Oklahoma - $30,398 University of San Master of Legal Studies Y Y Y 8 $31,410 Diego

20 Data comes from the indicated universities' web sites except for the enrollment numbers which are as reported by the ABA for the Fall of 2013. See, infra note 27. 21 Natural Resources/Environmental Law specialty 22 Business/Entrepreneurial Law Specialty 23 IP/Telecommunication Law Specialty 24 Data represents the statistics reported to the ABA for "Post Baccalaureate" enrollment. "Post Baccalaureate includes students reported on the annual questionnaire as either "Post Baccalaureate" or "Non Law". These categories generally include a range of master level programs aimed at non-lawyer professionals." Data From the 2013 Annual Questionnaire ABA-Approved Law School JD and Non JD Enrollment Data: Fall 2013, American Bar Association (posted 1/18/2014), http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/statistics.html. 34

University of Masters in Studies in Law Y Y Y 11 $29,700 Pittsburgh - $36,904 West Virginia Master in Legal Studies N N N 1 $14,436 University - $40,572 University of Master in Legal Studies N N N 9 $12,814 Nebraska - $30,328 Cleveland-Marshall Master in Legal Studies N Y N 14 $15,628 College University of Dayton Masters in Studies of Law N Y Y 1 $22,329 - $51,408 Hamline University Masters in Studies of Law N N N 25 $22,500 Nova Southeastern Employment Law Masters N N N 121 - University Degree Penn State Law JD/MS in Human Resources N N N 0 - and Employment Relations Pace University Essentials of Human Resources N N N 0 $595 Law Certificate University of the Master of Science in Law N N N 17 $29,900 Pacific McGeorge Seton Hall Master of Science in N N N 20 - Jurisprudence

Exhibit B:

Potential Specialty Track for Patent Agents

POTENTIAL SPECIALTY TRACK FOR PATENT AGENTS

Track Description

Because the process for obtaining a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is, in part, a technical and scientific endeavor, law firms and companies have long employed non-lawyer “patent agents” to assist in the process. The USPTO accredits patent agents, who must pass the same patent bar exam administered to lawyers with JDs aspiring to be patent lawyers.

We propose creating a track for an MSL degree for aspiring patent agents. Our market research has suggested that this will satisfy a felt and growing need in the Denver and regional markets for patent law. We are also confident that such a program will simultaneously enrich many parts of the CU Law community and impact only minimally the parts of the law school not currently focused on intellectual property.

The Need for this Training

Nearly every mid-sized and large law firm that specializes in obtaining patents for clients employs some non-lawyer patent agents. Patent agents, who are accredited by the USPTO, may practice patent law, and sign and file patent applications before the USPTO. According to statistics cited by Notre Dame, which offers a degree similar to the one we are describing here, there are more than 10,000 non-lawyer members of the U.S. patent bar.25 Notre Dame also cites AIPLA statistics that the average salary for a patent agent at a private firm is more than $90,000, with a quarter making more than $126,000.26

Denver area firms follow this trend. A non-scientific survey of firm websites for some of the largest patent firms in Denver showed a number of employed patent agents. Kilpatrick Townsend employs three; Faegre Baker Daniels employs two; Dorsey lists one. We believe that many other firms hire patent agents as well. At this moment, both Perkins Coie27 and Cooley28 list openings for patent agents in their Denver offices.

At least two factors suggest the need for even more patent agents. First, under the America Invents Act of 2013, Congress increased administrative procedures that those who would challenge the validity of a patent may use, without resorting to litigation. This has shifted the need in law firms from traditionally trained litigators to those with experience in front of the USPTO. One litigator we interviewed said that many firms are focusing on non-lawyer patent agents to fill this need.

25 http://patentlaw.nd.edu/patent-agent-and-program-faq/ 26 http://patentlaw.nd.edu/patent-agent-and-program-faq/ Other statistics listing salaries for patent agents are available at http://www.patenteducationseries.com/alert/salary_range_patent_agent_patent_attorney.html 27 http://www.perkinscoie.com/careers/job_detail.aspx?jobID=a90dc0a6-5a27-4fd8-9ee1-f32cfe09274b&type=staff 28 Conversation with Wayne Stacy, Partner, Cooley.

Second, the USPTO has just opened its third ever satellite office in the Denver area. In this office, the USPTO will house as many as one hundred patent examiners, the administrative officials on the other side of the patent application process.29 The USPTO is likely to value the completion of our degree in deciding whom to hire for these positions. It is also likely that some of these examiners will want to enroll in our program, either to improve their knowledge and standing in their current jobs, or as a stepping stone to law firm work.

The Impact on Colorado Law

We think the impact of adding this track will be very positive. And we are not worried about potential negative impacts that might affect other possible tracks more.

Every student who enrolls in this program should have a degree in science or engineering. This is because USPTO regulations require a degree to sit for the patent bar. The Front Range is full of many very qualified scientists and engineers, so we think we will have a rich applicant pool from which to draw.

In addition, we hope an influx of scientists and engineers into CU Law will enrich classes and other curricular and extracurricular activities. This will obviously be a boon within the IP and technology programs at CU Law, but we hope the positive impact will be even more broadly felt, because scientific and technical knowledge is needed in nearly every area of law.

We are not worried about the prospect of cannibalization from the JD program. At least according to the memories of our IP faculty, each JD class we admit has only a handful of students eligible to sit for the patent bar. Professor Ohm estimates the number to be around five each year, and certainly no more than ten even in the highest years. For whatever reason, students with science degrees do not matriculate here in high numbers.

Second, again to our memory, we have never known a law student who has graduated and passed the patent bar, only to be hired as a patent agent rather than a patent attorney. Patent agents cannot be hired as patent attorneys, and those qualified to be patent attorneys are never offered jobs as patent agents.

In fact, this program might end up increasing the pool of qualified applicants for the JD program too, at least in a small way and over the long run. Experience suggests that many patent agents who work for law firms end up applying to law school down the road, to be eligible for the higher salaries typically paid patent lawyers. We would hope that some of the patent agents we send out in the world would end up eventually coming back to CU Law for another degree from us, thereby generating a new pathway for qualified and experienced students.

Third, we are excited by the opportunity this specialty track will afford us to strengthen our already-strong ties to other parts of the University. Not only do we hope to draw interest from alumni of the University’s world-class engineering and science programs, but also we hope to build new bridges to CU’s Technology Transfer Office, Committee on University Discoveries,

29 http://www.uspto.gov/about/locations/satellites.jsp 38

and other parts of the University charged with helping our researchers propagate their discoveries and inventions to a broader community.

Finally, we have reason to believe these students will not negatively impact the classroom. We imagine the students who apply will be similar in some ways to the Masters of Telecommunications students who enroll in CU’s Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Students. We have had literally scores of these students enrolled in law school classes over the last decade. In our experience, many if not most of these students have performed extremely well in these classes, not only considering they had not had formal legal training before, but even compared to full-time JD students. In some cases, MS-ITP students performed at or near the very tops of their law school classes.

Comparable Programs

We have identified at least two programs at peer schools that offer a similar degree. Notre Dame Law School has a Masters of Science in Patent Law degree, targeted at potential patent agents.30 Arizona State University offers a Masters of Legal Studies in Patent Practice.31

Details Here are some details about the potential track in Patent Law, although these details may vary before implementation:

• 12-Month Program commencing in August

• August - May: Students complete coursework

o Foundational Layer (6 credit hours) (Summer before advanced coursework) . Intro to Law (new) . Legal Research & Writing (new)

• February: Students interview for summer internships

• Spring Break: Students take Patent Bar Exam

30 http://patentlaw.nd.edu/for-prospective-students/patent-agent-career/ 31 https://www.law.asu.edu/admissions/Admissions/MLSMasterofLegalStudiesProgram/MLSPatentPractice.aspx 39

• May: Graduation

• May - August: Students have paid internships with pre-committed law firms, law departments & PTO.

• September: Graduates commence permanent employment as patent agents

Exhibit C:

Faculty Curriculum Vitae

POTENTIAL MSL FACULTY

Faculty Title Area Vitae Member Amy Bauer Legal Writing Legal Research & http://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/prof Professor Writing; Intro to ile.jsp?id=412 American Law Gabriella Legal Writing Legal Research & http://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/prof Marks Professor Writing; Intro to ile.jsp?id=55 Stafford American Law Paul Ohm Associate Dean Information http://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/prof for Academic Privacy, Intellectual ile.jsp?id=180 Affairs Property Associate Professor of Law J. Brad Associate Entrepreneurship http://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/prof Bernthal Professor of Law ile.jsp?id=192 Charles Distinguished Public Lands, http://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/prof Wilkinson Professor, Moses Water ile.jsp?id=65 Lasky Professor of Law William Associate Energy http://lawweb.colorado.edu/profiles/prof Boyd Professor of Law ile.jsp?id=319

Exhibit D:

External Reviewer Comments

EXTERNAL REVIEWER COMMENTS a) Include a copy of external evaluator’s comments and specify any changes made in response to the evaluation b) If evaluator suggested changes in program not being made, explain why

Please see the attached review by James B. Speta, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and International Initiatives, Northwestern Law School.

In response to the comments of Dean Speta, we have made the following changes to our proposed program:

• Further aligned our proposed specialty tracks those areas of current excellence within Colorado Law • Amended our evaluation criteria to add periodic surveys of the students and faculty involved in the program

Exhibit E:

Dean’s Statement

PROPOSED MSL PROGRAM

Dean’s Statement

I verify that Colorado Law has adequate resources to support the new degree program presented in the attached proposal and that the projected resources and allocations represented in this proposal are reasonable.

s/Phil Weiser ______

Philip J. Weiser Dean and Thomson Professor of Law Colorado Law