by Anthony DeMatteo
Staff Writer
The Florida Coastal School of Law will hold a grand opening celebration of its new law building April 4 at the school’s campus.
Dennis W. Archer, the National Policy Board Chairman and former president of the American Bar Association, will speak.
The event starts at 3 p.m.
The 220,000 square foot building opened to students last August. Also added to the college campus was a 7-story parking garage and a 30-acre lake.
“We host a lot of events, including continuous legal education and look forward to doing a lot more now that we have the facilities,” said Margaret Dees, the school’s director of institutional advancement.
Dees said she expects hundreds of people to attend the grand opening — 2,000 invitations have been sent out — including judges, elected officials and alumni of the 10-year-old school.
“We are busy doing our chair plan,” said Dees. “It’s a day of celebration, and to have Dennis Archer here is very special.”
Archer was the mayor of Detroit from 1994-2001.
Dees said Florida Coastal graduates are consistently in the top five of state law school students in the percentage of those passing the Bar exam.
“We put a lot into this school,” she said. “Every year, our admission standards go up by necessity.”
Dees said Florida Coastal is the only accredited for-profit law school in the country.
“It’s allowed us to build this kind of facility, which would have taken other schools 20 or 30 years to build.”
She said while the new location has been open for months, the dedication ceremony is important.
“It’s an important milestone in the life of any institution of higher education,” she said. “This is our permanent home.”