Tuition costs at Americas law schools are growing annually. What are some alternatives or solutions?

Kent Syverud, dean and professor of the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, will speak onThe Ethics of Expensive Law Schoolsat 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, at the West Virginia University College of Law, Lugar Courtroom. The Charles L. Ihlenfeld Lecture on Public Policy and Ethics is open to the public.

It is now extremely expensive to get a legal education in the United States, even at state universities,Syverud said.A large fraction of law students are coming from higher income families that can afford the cost, while most are assuming staggering amounts of debt in order to pursue a legal career. Why has this happened, and what should we do about it?

Syverud clerked for former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OConner and practiced law at Wilmer, Cutler&Pickering in Washington, D.C. He served as dean of Vanderbilt Law School and also taught at the University of Michigan Law School.

He was the 1995 recipient of the Mark and Beth Goldberg Distinguished Visiting Professor at Cornell Law School and has been a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Tokyo, Japan.

The Ihlenfeld lectures are made possible through a request by the family of the late Charles Ihlenfeld, a 1933 WVU law graduate. Ihlenfeld practiced law in Wheeling, served as Ohio County prosecuting attorney from 1940-48 and was Wheelings mayor from 1963-67. He continued his public service as a U.S. magistrate for the Northern District and as past president of the Ohio County Bar Association.