(Top) SIU Simmons Law School saw a 23% increase in first-year students this fall compared to a year ago. (Bottom) First-year students participate in a contracts class with Thomas Reichert, an assistant professor of law who is also in his first year at the law school. Reichert earned each of his four degrees, including his law degree, from SIU Carbondale. (Photos by Erasmus Tornye)
September 18, 2025
SIU Simmons Law School sees 25% increase in first-year students this fall
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Even with a 25% increase in first-year students at the Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School from a year ago, Dean Hannah Brenner Johnson and her staff already are on the recruiting trail for students who want to be a part of the Class of 2029.
A national wave of increased interest in legal careers, coupled with the SIU law school’s continued commitment to experiential learning, affordability, a dynamic and accessible faculty, and smaller classes sizes, keep Brenner Johnson optimistic.
The outlook is “a very good problem to have,” said Brenner Johnson, who became dean in July, adding that first-year students have stronger entering credentials than their predecessors.
She credited the work of Layla Murphy, who just finished her first year as the law school’s admissions director for bringing “a lot of innovation, enthusiasm and new ideas” to the process. The law school already has received applications for next fall, and Murphy is on the road at undergraduate recruitment fairs around the country.
Figures tell a compelling story
There are 134 first-year students in the law school’s Class of 2028, an increase from 107 students last year. The number of applications has also risen. There were 745 applications last year compared to 600 in 2024 and 475 in 2021. While the law school was more selective in admitting students this year, lowering its acceptance rate from 68% to 56%, incoming students received $1.75 million in tuition waivers and donor funded scholarships through the SIU Foundation.
“Our students are definitely getting the benefit of financial support both from the university and our donors,” she said.
Brenner Johnson noted that 53% of the class is female, with 34% of the class identifying as Asian, Black, Hispanic or two or more races. The law school’s overall enrollment in fall 2025 is 313, up about 16%.
While student interest in attending law school can be cyclical, Brenner Johnson points to additional factors at work.
“I think that there is probably increased attention to the role of lawyers and the versatility of a law degree,” she said. “Simmons Law School has always provided students with an affordable legal education. Our graduates can go out and practice anywhere with a law degree from here. They can sit for a bar in any state in the country. A degree from Simmons Law School gives them extraordinary flexibility to chart their unique professional path.”
Changes on the horizon
Brenner Johnson noted that SIU Simmons Law School is one fewer than 12 law schools in the nation — and one of two in Illinois — where students will be able to apply financial aid to tuition and cost-of-living expenses and still remain below a $50,000 annual cap for professional students federal direct unsubsidized loan limits that go into effect July 1, 2026. The overall lifetime cap for all federal student loans combined, including those incurred as an undergraduate, will be $257,000.
“What that means is that at other law schools, students will have to look to other sources of funding for their legal education,” Brenner Johnson said. “The private loan market will probably jump in to fill this gap. But those private loans are expensive, they don’t have the same kinds of repayment terms that federal loans have and there are a lot of people who simply won’t be able to access those loans.
“My sense is that prospective law students across the country are going to have all eyes on schools like Simmons Law School because of the value proposition.”
Experiential learning is a key component
One of Brenner Johnson’s priorities is expanding the law school’s experiential learning programs including the legal clinic and externships.
“SIU turns out practice-ready lawyers. We do a really good job of teaching students the black letter law–within the four walls of the classroom. They learn core doctrinal subjects like contracts, property and criminal law and torts and civil procedure. But their education does not stop there. Students also need to learn how to engage in the practice of law — the practical component of what we teach in the classroom.”
Brenner Johnson noted that the federal NextGen Bar Exam, which is set to be adopted in Illinois in 2028, will be “much more focused on testing lawyering skills and subjects that are more reflective of modern law practice.”
“As we evolve our curriculum at this law school, we need to be trending even more in that direction, which we are already doing,” she said.
A legal desert
The SIU Simmons Law School will continue its mission of providing attorneys to the region. According to Illinois Courts, 35 Illinois counties had 10 or fewer attorneys in private practice in 2020, and 13 counties had five or fewer attorneys in private practice.
Brenner Johnson noted that while Illinois admits many new lawyers to the bar each year, recent data showed about 6,300 of 7,000 new attorneys in the state were practicing in Cook County or its collar counties. This is further illustration of the fact that there is only a modest influx of lawyers throughout the rest of the state.
“We are working to strengthen the pipeline between undergraduate programs at SIU and the law school to keep local students in their communities. And every summer, we host summer programs to help high school and college students learn more about law school and the legal profession.”
About one half of Simmons Law School students are from Illinois. While not all will stay in the region, many will, she said. “There are a lot of communities in this country that are underserved by lawyers, and what that means is that people who need attorneys don’t have access to even basic legal services,” she said. “At Simmons Law School, we are working to remedy that.”
