A Utah lawmaker wants the state’s largest public university to have a law school.
The state has two law schools, one public and the other private, at the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. But Republican Sen. Brady Brammer, who is also an attorney, thinks Utah’s growing population should have a third at Utah Valley University to meet the state’s demand.
Both BYU and the University of Utah have relatively modest law school class sizes compared to other states, graduating about 200 students combined last spring.
“We're low on public defenders, we're low on prosecutors, we're low on agency attorneys,” Brammer told the Senate Education Committee Jan. 29. “Throughout the state, what we really have is a problem with a supply of attorneys.”
The Utah State Bar has said similar things about shortages in certain fields. Part of the problem, Brammer said, is that law firms are successfully picking up Utah attorneys. The American Bar Association said that in 2023, the number of new law graduates nationwide joining law firms was higher than ever.
Brammer’s resolution would direct the Orem-based university to study whether a law school is feasible. It would be housed at its Thanksgiving Point facilities in Lehi, which Brammer said is accessible from both Salt Lake and Utah counties.
If the resolution passes the full legislature, that feasibility report would look at things such as projected enrollment and staffing needs. The study could cost about $55,000 and would be due by the end of November.
Brammer envisions a potential UVU law school as one different from the state’s existing institutions, which he called “traditional,” meaning students attend classes full-time weekdays and graduate in three years.
“This is a little different. We would be looking at a night and weekend law school. These would be what I would call ‘second-career attorneys,’” Brammer said, anticipating people currently in professions like teaching and law enforcement coming to the school.
Brammer hopes the proposed school could create a “really good pool to pull from” for the “base layer of legal need within the state,” meaning jobs like prosecutors and city attorneys. Part of his reason for selecting UVU is its “laser focus on creating job-ready students."
While the Utah State Bar isn’t happy with several of the Legislature’s proposals this year, specifically those aimed at the judiciary, it is more positive about this one.
“We understand his goal is to help address Utah’s lawyer shortage by examining whether more flexible legal education options could expand access to the profession,” the bar said in a statement. “We will be interested in the results of the study group, and thank Sen. Brammer for reaching out to the Bar to seek lawyer input and appreciate being included in those discussions.”
Speaking for the state bar at the committee hearing, Frank Piganelli told them, “When this was brought forward to the bar commission last year, there was almost near unanimous declarations of ‘this is such a great and wonderful idea.’”
Three members of the public also spoke in favor, including a BYU undergraduate student and a self-described middle-aged mother. Both said they’d be interested in attending a UVU law school.
While committee member Republican Sen. John Johnson supports studying the issue, he had concerns about “mission creep” among the state’s colleges.
No representative from UVU spoke at the committee hearing. The school hasn’t yet taken a position on the proposed law school and feasibility study.
The resolution was unanimously passed by the Senate Education Committee, its first hurdle. It’ll have to pass the Senate floor before it goes to the House.
The Legislature has also reshaped higher education in recent years. In 2025, lawmakers passed a law that withheld money from colleges until they came up with plans to cut “low-performing programs” and reinvest that money in high-demand areas. They also passed an overhaul of the general education program at Utah State University as a potential pilot for the rest of the state. In 2024, lawmakers cut the state’s higher education budget. This year, lawmakers are discussing a 5% cut to the higher education budget, something they’ve asked every state agency in a tight budget year.
