Law Schools, Texas

Accreditation Woes For Dallas's First Public Law School

This isn't Jim Bob's Law School, but that doesn't mean the ABA will rubber-stamp accreditation.

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scales money vs diploma law degree law schoolAfter opening up two years ago, UNT Dallas Law School is now in danger of not being accredited by the ABA. And sure the ABA has its own fair share of accreditation issues, but despite its penchant for granting new law schools the necessary credentials, it recently found that the academic standards at UNT are not up to snuff. As the Dallas Morning News reports:

“It appears that the law school is admitting applicants that do not appear capable of satisfactorily completing its program of legal education and being admitted to the bar,” said the report, which was obtained by The News.

[Dean Royal] Furgeson said the school looks at other criteria when admitting students, including work history, advanced degrees and military service.

“We give careful consideration to other factors like grit and hard work that we think are indicative of their ability to get past the bar and become lawyers,” he said.

The school could try to assuage the bar association by requiring higher LSAT scores. But then the school stands to lose students — and tuition dollars.

Though the school’s first class has yet to graduate, meaning we do not yet know how they’ll fare on the bar exam, last fall one-fifth of students in that first class were on academic probation. So though the admitted students’ poor LSAT scores also feature in the ABA’s concerns over the school, there are other data points to give one pause.

School leaders are touting familiar lines about the necessity of diversity in the legal world, which, is certainly true — the legal profession is in need of diversification by nearly every metric. But law schools also owe it to the students they admit to make sure they’ll be able to pass the bar exam and actually join the legal profession. Otherwise the debt accumulated by the students is no more than so many feathers in the law school’s nest, with no tangible benefit for the students or society at large.

UNT Dallas Law is going to continue the accreditation process, in the hopes they’ll be able to get over that hurdle:

School leaders will go before a council of the bar association in October and argue why the school deserves accreditation.

“We’re glad we have a chance to go to the council and make our case, which we will do vigorously,” said Furgeson, a former U.S. District judge. If that doesn’t work, he said, “We’re gonna do whatever it takes to get there.” Schools can reapply.

As for students, well, they’re left waiting. Though optimism seems to be on the agenda:

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Rachel Hawkins, who’s starting her third year at UNT law, said she and her classmates knew the risk when they enrolled. “We all took a big leap of faith and a gamble,” said Hawkins, who works in online marketing and goes to UNT part-time.

Still, she figured the school was too big to fail. She remains optimistic the school will succeed.

“This is UNT. This isn’t Jim Bob’s law school,” Hawkins said. “This is a public institution. This has been in the works for a long, long time.”

No, this isn’t Jim Bob’s Law School, but that doesn’t mean the ABA will rubber-stamp accreditation. Let’s just hope this irrepressibly sunny law student is actually able to transition into a career in the law.

You can read the ABA’s full recommendation letter here.

UNT Dallas Law School in danger of not getting accredited [Dallas Morning News]

Earlier: Allowing Law Students To Fail The Bar Exam Is NOT A Good Way To ‘Diversify’ The Legal Profession

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Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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