by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
With an agenda topped by growth management and an interest in downtown real estate, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Florida Coastal School of Law’s new board of trustees features a distinct resemblance to the Downtown Development Authority.
It could presage what’s always been discussed, formally and informally: a move of the private law school to a downtown location.
Two out of the five board members announced last week boast experience on the DDA. Current DDA chairman Bob Rhodes, also of counsel at Foley and Lardner, will chair the FCSL board which also includes Audrey McKibbin Moran, the DDA’s first chairman who’s now a consultant.
A venture capital firm bought the school last year, giving FCSL needed financial backing. Since Chicago and Baltimore-based Sterling Capital Partners took over, the school has grown to near 900 students and added a sports law center, one of only three similar programs in the country.
“I’ve watched as it’s gone from an intriguing idea to a reality to a very successful operation,” said Moran. “The growth has been remarkable.”
But that growth has started to become a strain on the school’s current facility, an 85,000-square-foot Beach Boulevard office park.
Sterling has made no secret of its desire to move the school to a roomier building downtown. It’s the kind of project that no doubt excites the DDA members in Rhodes and Moran. But they declined to comment on the possible move.
Both deferred questions about a move downtown to FCSL Dean Peter Goplerud. But Moran did say that the school has “obviously outgrown its current space.”
Moran and Rhodes will be joined on the board by Kenneth Shropshire, chairman of the legal studies department and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business; Barbara Suddath Strickland, a corporate attorney and vice president of The Suddath Companies and Suddath Van Lines; and Ronald Townsend, former president and general manager of the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C and now a communications consultant.
Moran said she didn’t need much convincing when Goplerud first approached her two months ago about serving on the school’s first board of trustees.
“We had a wonderful talk then and I was very impressed with him and the board he was putting together,” said Moran.
Moran said she’s intrigued with the school’s unique approach to legal education. FCSL began in 1996 with an idea to run a law school as a for-profit enterprise. After a slow start, the school gained full accreditation from the American Bar Association in 2002. It was then the only for-profit school with an ABA stamp of approval.
The board members will begin meeting next month with the faculty and administration to figure out the priority items on the board’s agenda.
As a former adjunct faculty member at Florida State, Rhodes has first-hand experience with traditional legal academia. He said he’s impressed with FCSL’s practical approach to education and hopes to help further it.
“The school is focused on teaching students how to go out and practice law,” said Rhodes. “As someone with experience in both the corporate and the legal world I have a real appreciation for how important that practical knowledge is.”
Moran said she will focus, in part, on keeping the school accessible to non-traditional students even as it continues to grow. By making classes available at night, part-time and on the internet, she said FCSL had taken a leadership position within the State’s legal institutions in making a legal education accessible.
“One of the things I was most attracted to was that the school made it a priority to attract minorities. It’s creative in coming up with ways to let them earn their degrees,” she said.