Cortese: San Jose deserves its first public law school

When I was in my 30s, I went to Lincoln Law School in San Jose part-time and earned my Juris Doctor degree. I was able to pass the Bar Exam and become a practicing attorney all while raising a family and working a full-time job — furthering my education at a pace and price I could afford.

That education transformed the way I serve my community today as a state senator. Yes, it gave me a legal lens that has proven invaluable in the Legislature, but it also reminded me of what’s possible when doors are opened for working people.

San Jose is the largest city in the Bay Area and third largest in California. Santa Clara County is home to 2 million people and has the sixth-highest GDP in the nation. We lead the nation in new patents. It’s hard to believe that here, in the heart of Silicon Valley, we still lack an affordable, accessible public law school for aspiring legal minds.

For a region like ours, the economic engine of our state, that’s simply unacceptable. It is the reason I’ve introduced Senate Bill 550, which would create the pathway for Santa Clara County’s first-ever public law school. SB 550 legally authorizes our local San Jose State University (SJSU) campus to integrate with a nonprofit, state-accredited law school and provide access to an affordable legal education for our next generation of public defenders, prosecutors, judges, civil rights attorneys, city attorneys, policy advisors, child advocates, business and small business attorneys, environmental lawyers, land use attorneys and more.

As it stands today, students in our community are forced to travel long distances, take on staggering debt or give up on their legal dreams entirely. The latest data from Equal Justice Works shows the average law student graduates with more than $130,000 in debt, thanks to costly private law schools.

And while more than 65% of our local population identifies as Asian American or Latino, these populations are drastically underrepresented among California’s licensed attorneys.

This isn’t a pie-in-the-sky idea. A viable institution, with existing programs and professors, resides just a few blocks away from the SJSU campus: Lincoln Law School, an institution that has lent its support to SB 550. The Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, the Santa Clara County Bar Association and SJSU students have also worked to support this bill, traveling to our state Capitol to convey our unique regional need.

Magnus Herrlin, president of the SJSU Pre-Law Society, said it best: “SB 550 sends a powerful message to students like me. It tells them they can be an attorney and that they belong in this profession.”

That message is embodied in the story of the late Teresa Guerrero-Daley, a single mom on general assistance who attended Lincoln Law School, became San Jose’s first independent police auditor and later a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge.

Some have raised concerns about how SB 550 deviates from the “California Master Plan for Higher Education,” a framework created in the 1960s when Santa Clara County was full of prune orchards, canneries and agricultural fields, known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight. That plan limited public law degrees to the UC system.

Sadly, this plan does not reflect the reality of our region today — 92% of low-income legal needs go unmet nationwide, with an estimated 150 million unresolved legal problems each year, according to Legal Services Corporation. This includes growing vacancies right here in San Jose.

Justice can’t wait.

San Jose deserves its first public law school. Our students deserve doors to a legal education opened for them. And I can’t wait to see the next generation of lawyers and public servants that SB 550 will help bring to our community.

Dave Cortese serves in the California Senate representing District 15.