While budget cuts have the University of California community in upheaval, the UC Irvine School of Law arranged for privately financed scholarships to cover at least half of tuition for 80 students for three years.

The decision comes after Irvine’s inaugural class of 60 students received full scholarships for all three years in August. The scholarships made Irvine so alluring that it could only accept 4 percent of applicants this year—making Irvine the most selective law school in the country in its first year.

Most of the scholarship money comes from lawyers in southern California, according to Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. Last week alone, Orange County trial lawyer Mark Robinson donated $400,000 on top of the $1 million donation he made to the inaugural class in August.

Though the UC Irvine School of Law is not yet accredited, the tuition for 2010-2011 is expected to be nearly $40,000 for California residents and $50,000 for out-of-state residents, a 10 percent increase from last year.

Dean Chemerinsky, who previously taught at the Duke University law school, said he was expecting a surge in new applications before the Feb. 15 deadline in light of this week’s scholarship announcement. 

“Obviously we can’t keep these scholarships going forever,” said Chemerinsky, “But I think we need to keep it going till we’re established as a school, so that we keep getting these high-quality applicants.”

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