by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
The door is still open for a downtown move by the Florida Coastal School of Law, but it probably won’t be a reality.
The for-profit law school is running out of space at its Beach Boulevard location and downtown remains an option.
But, says its chancellor, times have changed.
“When we started seven years ago, downtown was among the top choices,” said Don Lively, one of the school’s founders, “but we didn’t have any credibility then. When we met with City officials, they looked at us and said, ‘Who are these guys?’ And for good reason — we had no attachment to the community.”
Today, the school has 500 students, 80 percent of its graduates pass the state’s bar exam and has grown so much that there are now more students than parking places.
“Downtown remains attractive,” said Lively at Friday’s Downtown Council meeting, “and it’s even more attractive now than it was back then.
“But what makes it more attractive has made it increasingly expensive. It’s a matter of resources. We’ll keep looking at it.”
The notion of downtown college campuses goes back many years, but only Florida Community College at Jacksonville has landed in the central city. It’s on the northern edge of the Northbank area, and Edward Waters College is a mile west.
The original University of North Florida campus was downtown — it was in the building now being renovated by the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art — and there were hopes that the full campus would be brought there to replace the businesses which were fleeing to the suburbs.
But a political land deal ended that, and UNF was placed far from the then-center of the population.
Lively also confirmed rumors that the school is for sale “but that’s nothing new. We would consider selling it, but it would depend on the buyer. We don’t want someone who would make it a junk school, some predator who was looking for a fast buck.
“We’ve built a good reputation. We are one of 186 law schools with full approval by the American Bar Association. To do that in seven years is a real accomplishment, and we’re not going to throw that away.”
FCSL will soon move into a consumer curriculum, he said.
“We’re working on some programs which could benefit the average citizen,” he said. “The average person doesn’t need a law degree, but he or she may need knowledge in some phase of the law. These would be short courses which would give the citizen what he or she needs.”
Lively said the programs would be announced early next year.