A proposed partnership with the University of California could pipeline local students to their brand-new innovative law school and increase the chances that graduates move here to practice law.

Irvine School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood said they were both excited about forming a partnership that could benefit students on either side of the Pacific.

“Nothing has been thought through or decided so I’m just suggesting possibilities,” Chemerinsky said yesterday. “Guam doesn’t have a law school itself, but we could create a program to admit students from Guam to our law school.”

Tydingco-Gatewood said the University of California could allow its students to earn credits by working at the District Court of Guam.

Students who worked in Guam for a semester would be more likely to return here after they graduated, she said.

Chemerinsky was the keynote speaker at the District Court of Guam Annual District Conference yesterday. About two hundred members of Guam’s legal community packed into a ballroom to hear him speak.

[Guam PDN]