UNM Law alumni push to block Dean Carey contract renewal

Alumni, attorneys and students are pressing University of New Mexico leaders to stop Dean Camille Carey’s contract renewal, arguing that the state’s only public law school is drifting away from its mission to serve New Mexico students and communities. The fight has widened into a question about what a flagship public law school should measure, whom it should admit, and how much weight it should give rankings, test scores and national prestige.

Critics say the school has tilted toward out-of-state recruitment at the expense of local access. Organizers said applications from New Mexico residents fell from 600 to 216 this year, while out-of-state students now make up about one-third of the incoming class. They argue that those shifts leave qualified New Mexico applicants behind and weaken the school’s role as a pipeline for judges, prosecutors, public defenders, civil lawyers and legal-aid attorneys who stay in the state after graduation.

Carey has led the law school since July 1, 2022. UNM’s dean profile says she joined the law faculty in 2009. The school’s own admissions page says it enrolls an intimate and diverse class of future legal professionals, and its website tracks first-time bar admission and employment statistics for graduates. That makes the current dispute more than philosophical, because the same metrics used in rankings and recruiting are now at the center of a public argument over whether the school is still serving Bernalillo County and the rest of New Mexico first.

The pushback has come from multiple corners. The New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association sent UNM leadership a March 12 letter urging that Carey’s contract not be renewed, citing low admission rates for New Mexico residents and New Mexico Hispanics. On March 23, 14 UNM law student organizations signed an open letter asking the provost and Board of Regents to decline to recommend renewal. Critics have also said leadership has not responded quickly or transparently to sexual misconduct concerns and that some admissions concerns have left qualified applicants out of the process.

For Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, the stakes are practical. UNM Law feeds local employers, legal-aid offices and public agencies that depend on graduates trained in New Mexico law and New Mexico communities. The school is also part of a larger governance debate: in a January 2024 faculty meeting minute, a Senate Joint Resolution sponsored by Sen. Katy Duhigg sought to remove the law school from the judicial nominating process, and the New Mexico Supreme Court supported taking over that role. However UNM decides this contract fight, it will shape how the school balances access, accountability and the state’s legal future.