The slow-recovering economy has encouraged many people to head back to school to further their career, or to explore other career options. Because of that, the state's first public law school hasn't even officially opened and is doing better than expected.

According to the Boston Globe, applications for the UMass Law school have increased since UMass Dartmouth acquired Southern New England School of Law. The school receive 462 applications for the fall's inaugural class, and the size of the first class is 155 students.

The school plans to seek accreditation from the American Bar Association in 2012, according to the news source.

"These students are going to go out there, I hope, imbued with the spirit that they have an opportunity to improve justice because they got an education with an emphasis on the public purpose of law," said Jean MacCormack, chancellor of UMass Dartmouth, to the news source.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of lawyers is expected to grow by 13% between 2008 and 2018. The growth is attributed to the level of business activity expected and a demand for legal services in areas such as health care, intellectual property, bankruptcy, corporate and security litigation, antitrust laws and environmental law.