Never Better

It’s fitting, Dean Megan Carpenter says, that the first class of non-residential students at UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law started a fund to provide scholarships for future students. That’s because the initial cohort of hybrid students represents both the law school’s humble beginnings in a bull barn in Concord half a century ago and its innovative approach to ensuring accessible, practical legal education for future lawyers.

“This program is the Barn 3.0,” Carpenter says of the Hybrid JD option that allows students to stay in their homes and their careers while earning a law degree. “It has expanded access to a top-flight curriculum and charted the course for the future of professional education. And this innovation has been nothing short of transformative for the law school.”

When Carpenter arrived as dean eight years ago, she faced a stark reality. The law school had been running multi-million-dollar deficits for years, alumni giving had plummeted to 2.6%, and enrollment was at an all-time low. So, led by Carpenter, the law school took bold action to reverse course. Carpenter and others worked collaboratively with the UNH Franklin Pierce community, conducting brainstorming sessions with faculty and staff, surveying the various stakeholders, and coalescing around the unique strengths of the law school.

“We came up with a vision, and it was aggressive,” Carpenter explains. “We presented a five-year pro forma to university leadership and the Board of Trustees,” Carpenter recalls. “It was a plan based on authenticity and innovation."

—MEGAN CARPENTER

Within three years of that five-year plan, the law school was no longer losing money, and its position had stabilized. The results are on full display today, with the numbers to prove it. In just over five years, alumni giving surged to 11%, and applications and enrollment reached a record high.

“I view this as a vote of confidence in our mission and our vision,” Carpenter says. “We are principled, pioneering, and pragmatic. And while innovation is the through-line of all we do, authenticity — of relationships and of our identity — is the core.”

Since Carpenter’s arrival in 2017, the law school also has experienced remarkable fiscal growth. Over eight years, net tuition revenue has increased from $860,000 to $5.25 million, while overall revenue has nearly tripled, surging from $11 million to more than $30 million.

“When you look at the numbers, it’s the trajectory that’s important,” Carpenter says, “not just because the numbers are what they are, but because we were confronting some existential questions back in 2017. We have diversified our portfolio of educational programs in a way that reduces our dependencies on any particular market and fortifies the law school for a volatile future landscape of higher education.”

This transformation wasn’t achieved from a position of strength. Carpenter recalls that when Franklin Pierce Law Center became part of the University of New Hampshire System, alumni of the law school got lost in the shuffle, and communication broke down.

“Many alumni were disaffected and mistrustful of the merger,” she says, “trying to figure out their place in a new era for the law school.”

That challenge was compounded by the school’s geographic and demographic positions, located an hour from UNH’s main campus in a state that ranks 50th nationally for higher education support, while operating in a competitive legal education market in which many schools were also struggling with declining enrollment.

Rather than accepting defeat, Carpenter and her team, Associate Deans Leah Plunkett, Michael McCann, and John Greabe, worked with faculty and staff to identify what made UNH Franklin Pierce special and doubled down on those strengths, most notably by mobilizing its impressive global alumni network.

“When you meet someone who went to Franklin Pierce, they’re very quick to identify that’s where they went to law school,” Carpenter explains. “That network is how many alumni have gotten jobs, and, when they’re hiring, they in turn seek to hire other graduates. That strong affiliation arises not just out of a sense of loyalty, but out of understanding the unique legal education we offer and the way the school prepares graduates for the evolving landscape of law practice.”

Feeding off that pride, over the last several years UNH Franklin Pierce has made it a priority to reengage its graduates in an authentic way that Carpenter calls “the ground game.” Energizing and connecting that group has been key to fundraising in particular, as the law school staff has worked hard to proactively share with alumni the ways in which the institution remains true to its founding spirit.

According to Director of Development Rod Boyer and Alumni Liaison Ellen Musinsky, the law school has significantly increased its outreach in recent years.

Graduates have been connected through events ranging from Reunion Weekends in Concord to receptions in cities around the U.S. — and beyond — to having a hardy law school presence at various conferences. A May 2025 reception held at the International Trademark Association (INTA) Annual Meeting in San Diego, for example, boasted more than 200 attendees.

“We’ve also been more ambitious with our communications through social media, our bi-annual Powerhouse Press, and more regular emails about what’s happening at the school,” Boyer says. “This is an amazing place, and we have a lot of successes to communicate.”

That outreach has paid strong dividends, resulting in an exponential increase in alumni giving. As alumni and friends have had more opportunity to learn in which areas the law school is thriving, they’ve also been eager to provide financial backing. Over the past eight years, encompassing Carpenter’s tenure so far, the alumni giving percentage has seen an overall increase of more than 450%. Last year, Boyer reports, UNH Franklin Pierce set a new standard, with more than $9 million raised or pledged.

“While that success reflected some exceptional gifts, including three of $1 million or more, it also reflected increased investment across all levels and ways of giving,” Boyer notes. “Many of these gifts are coming in the form of firm sponsorships for our events and outreach, showing how valuable alumni find these events and allowing us to engage even more widely with our alumni.”

Recent gifts, explain Boyer and Musinsky, have allowed UNH Franklin Pierce to launch a Health and Life Sciences concentration within the non-residential JD program, to update student and faculty resource areas (including a collaboration space, a gymnasium, a recording studio, and a post-production studio), and create immersions and fellowships that enrich student learning.

“Robust philanthropic investment signals our strength as an institution,” Boyer adds.

Carpenter gives substantial credit for relationship-building to Musinsky, noting, “Ellen knows pretty much all alumni by name, but not just that — she knows their pets’ names, she knows their relationships, and she knows what kind of experience they had in law school. She has been a fabulous connector and champion of the Franklin Pierce spirit. We’ve tried over the last eight years to communicate about what we’re doing, to fortify those relationships, and build connections authentically around the globe.”

Before law students become alumni, they must first enroll at the school, and that’s another area that has seen significant growth since 2017. As part of its strategic innovation, UNH Franklin Pierce launched the aforementioned Hybrid JD program, creating the country’s first specialized law degree for working professionals in intellectual property and technology law. While innovating, the school was careful to remain faithful to its founding mission of uniting theory with practice, meeting students where they are, both literally and metaphorically.

“Our law school was founded on the principle that we’re going to look at other law schools and see what they could be doing differently,” Carpenter says, “and then we’re going to take that new, more practical approach.”

In the fall of 2025, UNH Franklin Pierce welcomed a record 250 entering JD candidates, among them 157 residential 1Ls and 93 non-residential 1Ls. According to numbers provided by Assistant Dean of JD Admissions Patricia Morris, applications to UNH Franklin Pierce grew by 32% in the recent admissions cycle, well above the New England average of 27% and the national average of 22%. Class members hail from 37 states, plus Washington, D.C., and nine foreign countries. Of the total new JD students enrolled, 12% have served in the military, a number that rises to 22% among hybrid students. In the Hybrid JD program, which attracts students with post-collegiate career experience, 72% have advanced degrees and 22% currently serve as patent agents.

There are many contributing factors for the favorable numbers, but in the last few years, Morris and the admissions team have placed a greater focus on student outcomes in recruiting.

“Their successes are our successes,” Morris says. “The best marketing for us is our students and alumni.”

Morris also points to an increasingly strong scholarship program as a factor in the jump in enrollment. A scholarship honoring the legacy of former Professor James E. Duggan is just one example. The scholarship awards financial aid to 3Ls who plan to start their careers as public defenders, funding that makes a traditionally lower-paying career path more accessible. The law school admissions team also has expanded its reach through recruitment events across the U.S., via virtual panels, and through private visits to potential feeder schools and law firms.

“We work diligently to form strong relationships with pre-law and career advisors at universities,” Morris adds.

Community also remains at the forefront. Despite the fact that, since the launch of the Hybrid JD in 2019, numbers in that program have almost tripled, while residential enrollment has risen more than 58% in that same span, the law school continues to maintain the intimate, supportive environment that has always been its hallmark.

“We make it personal,” Morris explains. “With every admitted student, we form a close relationship from the moment of admission when we call to congratulate them. We arrange full-day private visits with class audits, tours, and lunch with students. We want them to know they are not just a number but a valued member of our community right away.”

In addition to this authentic relationship-building that begins with engaging new students and maintaining those ties as they become young attorneys and, eventually, experienced professionals, Carpenter also points to the more than one dozen global relationships UNH Franklin Pierce has developed across multiple continents, incorporating partnerships with schools, government agencies, law firms, and industry leaders into its educational programs. The dean credits Assistant Dean for Graduate Admissions & International Outreach Sarah Dorner for her leadership in that realm. Dorner has been instrumental in building those partnerships, along with attracting dozens of international students and building a support system for them once they arrive in New England.

“Our law school was founded on the principle that we’re going to look at other law schools and see what they could be doing differently, and then we’re going to take that new, more practical approach.” 

—MEGAN CARPENTER

The forging of relationships continues locally, as UNH Franklin Pierce embeds students in the Concord legal community. Many of them provide crucial pro bono services to a state with limited resources. Meanwhile, New Hampshire lawyers and judges serve as adjunct professors, while countless students also engage in the state’s legal community through internship and job opportunities.

In addition to Dorner, Morris, Boyer, and Musinsky, Carpenter points to the contributions of many others. Former Associate Dean Plunkett, now executive director of Harvard Law School Online, was the chief architect of the Hybrid JD program and instrumental in its success. Among the other key contributors is Assistant Dean for Career Services Neil Sirota, whose work with his team helped achieve a 94% employment rate for the Class of 2024 within 10 months of graduation. The dean also gives shoutouts to Professor McCann, who directs the school’s Sports and Entertainment Law Institute, Assistant Dean for Students Lauren Berger, and Associate Dean for Faculty Courtney Brooks. McCann’s reputation in the industry attracts students interested in sports law, and the professor is also a prolific writer whose work benefits the law school’s visibility. Echoing Morris, Berger helps UNH Franklin Pierce maintain its small-school feel and sense of community, despite its exponential growth. In addition to serving as Associate Dean, Brooks also leads the Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program, the nation’s first and only portfolio-based bar alternative program, a beacon of the institution.

Rapidly growing concentrations in public interest and other areas of the law are attracting more and varied students.

But, honoring its founding vision, perhaps nowhere is the school’s position in the market more evident than in intellectual property law. Founded as the law school for the information age in the early 1970s, before anybody was calling it an information age, UNH Franklin Pierce has produced IP leaders worldwide — and continues to do so.

“We started in a barn, we grew up in a state capital, and we went on to take over the world,” Carpenter told attendees at an October 2025 reception, noting that UNH Franklin Pierce graduates have been IP leaders around the world, including at companies such as TSMC, Samsung, LG, Disney, Fox, Microsoft, Pepsi, and Bayer.

Despite all the success of meeting the Board’s mandate, Carpenter still sees UNH Franklin Pierce as an underdog, although one that now has proven its mettle. The transformation from a struggling institution facing potential closure to a strong and thriving law school represents more than financial recovery for the dean.

“We’ve been able to accomplish all of this, despite the fact that it’s never been easy, so in many ways we’ve been a vanguard in higher education,” Carpenter says, adding that the struggle has been particularly important because of the ripple effect of the school’s graduates. “There are tens of thousands of people who will be helped as clients by these students throughout the arc of their careers. It’s incumbent upon us to do everything we can to help them succeed. We had an ambitious goal, and I am so proud to see what our community has been able to accomplish.”