AS AN attorney and a graduate of the Southern New England School of Law, I read with amusement the comments of Richard Doherty, president and chief executive of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts, and his concern for the cost and creation of a public law school (“UMass pushes for law school: Debate rekindled by plan to acquire private institution,’’ Page A1, Oct. 15).
Doherty seems to plumb the depths of hypocrisy when he expresses his concern about the possibility of the state spending money to support a public law school, given that he has lobbied to bring in more than $20 million this year to the state’s private colleges and universities in the midst of a statewide public fiscal crisis.
Doherty’s concern rings hollow when his primary job is to promote and perpetuate the agenda of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts.
God forbid that Massachusetts would choose to remove itself from the list of six states without a public law school, and seek to provide the taxpaying public with the opportunity to secure a law degree from the University of Massachusetts as opposed to the more costly private nonprofit Massachusetts law schools - institutions that monopolize the law degree market and profit enormously.
If the private colleges, universities, and law schools are really concerned about the health of the Massachusetts economy and the state treasury, maybe they should call home their lobbyists and stop taking state funds.
Kenneth Fiola Jr.
Fall River 
