UC Irvine to get long-sought law school

Orange County is about to get its first public law school which will be only the second public law school in all of Southern California.

UC Irvine's star-crossed plan for a law school is back from the dead.

A revamped proposal for the long-sought-after project is expected to win approval today from the University of California regents.

"I wholeheartedly recommend this," UC President Robert C. Dynes, the top-ranking official of the 10-campus system, told the regents Wednesday during their meeting at UCLA. "The Irvine campus has thought this through very carefully."

At the session, UCI Chancellor Michael V. Drake outlined his blueprint for a 600-student law school focusing on environmental, intellectual property, international and family and immigration law.

He said the project would be financed entirely by tuition and private donations, which already total $23 million. He called it the "right project for the right place at the right time."