ABA approves Touro Law’s ambitious Montana expansion

By GREGORY ZELLER //

Go west, young law school.

That’s the message from the American Bar Association, which has approved a request from the Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center to open a satellite law school in Montana.

Alan Kadish, president of the Central Islip-based, ABA-accredited Touro Law Center, announced the approval Monday, labeling it “more than just an expansion.”

“Touro University has long been defined by our commitment to filling educational gaps in rural and underserved areas,” Kadish said. “Opening this campus is a profound expression of our mission to provide high-quality legal education to those who will serve the communities that need them most.”

Opened in 1980, Touro Law Center is part of New York City-based Touro University, a private, not-for-profit institution operating 38 undergraduate, graduate and professional schools in four countries (including Touro College Israel, Touro University Berlin and the Lander Institute Moscow in Russia).

Touro is the largest U.S.-based private university system operated under Jewish auspices, though it admits students of all races, nations and creeds – and a majority of its roughly 20,000 global students are non-Jewish learners.

Touro Law Center is eyeing Great Falls for its new Montana expansion, which is not Touro’s first foray into the Treasure State. In 2018, Touro’s College of Osteopathic Medicine opened a Great Falls campus.

The university has begun recruiting efforts and plans to welcome students to its Montana law center for the Fall 2027 semester. When it opens, the hybrid-learning law school – combining online and in-person learning – will share space on the College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Great Falls campus, where Touro is also planning to launch a cutting-edge nursing program.

Having the thriving medical school in place helped the decision-making process, but Touro ultimately selected Great Falls for its law school expansion because of a “documented and growing shortage of legal professionals across the region,” the university said in a statement.

The hybrid program is designed to make a legal education “accessible to working professionals, rural residents and career changers throughout [Montana],” the university added.

The Great Falls nuptials follow a long and detailed courtship, during which Touro Law Center engaged with Montana state lawmakers, the Great Falls Development Alliance, the Cascade County Bar Association and practicing attorneys throughout the region – conversations that underscored “the urgency of [Montana’s] attorney shortage and the community’s enthusiasm for a locally accessible law school,” Touro noted.

The City of Great Falls “couldn’t be more excited” about Touro’s arrival, according to Mayor Cory Reeves.

“Touro’s commitment to Great Falls continues to grow,” Reeves said Monday. “By establishing this innovative law program here, Touro is directly addressing a critical attorney shortage and paving the way for the next generation of Montana’s lawyers to learn, work and stay in our community.”

Touro Law Center Dean Elena Langan credited the Great Falls expansion to those fruitful discussions.

“This initiative is the direct result of a collaborative partnership with Montana state and local leaders, as well as members of the Montana bar and bench, ensuring our presence and curriculum meet the specific needs of the region’s legal landscape,” Langan said in a statement. “We are creating a pathway for the next generation of legal professionals to build their careers in their communities.”