ABA Cracks Down On Law Schools Admitting Students Who Can't Pass The Bar Exam

These schools are now at risk of losing their accreditation if they do not improve.

oops keyPerhaps it was the fact that it received a stern rebuke from the Department of Education this summer, or perhaps it was the fact that bar exam passage rates have been on a steady decline for the past several years, but the American Bar Association has finally started to sanction law schools that violate its rules, cracking down on institutions that continue to enroll students who aren’t likely to graduate and pass the bar exam.

This past summer, the ABA brought the hammer down on the Ave Maria School of Law for being out of compliance with requirements that it have “sound admissions policies and procedures” and admit only applicants who “appear capable of satisfactorily completing its program of legal education and being admitted to the bar.” Ave Maria’s passage rate for the July 2016 administration of the Florida bar exam was 66.7 percent.

Now, the ABA has taken two more law schools to task: Valparaiso University School of Law has been publicly censured and Charlotte School of Law has been placed on probation, both for failing to comply with the same accreditation requirements for which Ave Maria was disciplined. Valparaiso’s passage rate for the July 2015 administration of the Indiana bar exam was 60.87 percent. Charlotte’s passage rate for the July 2016 administration of the North Carolina bar exam was 45.24 percent.

Karen Sloan of the National Law Journal has additional information:

Both Charlotte and Valparaiso remain accredited by the ABA and have two years to come into compliance with the rules, said Barry Currier, the ABA’s managing director of accreditation and legal education. But the council’s action puts both schools on notice that they must improve the quality of their admitted classes and better prepare them for the bar exam, or risk losing accreditation, he said. The ABA examined the schools’ Law School Admission Test (LSAT) scores and undergraduate grades of admitted students, bar pass rates and academic support programs when reaching its conclusions.

“The questions to the schools are: ‘What determinations are you making that give you confidence that the students you are admitting today—in light of your experience—are students who are capable of graduating from your program and passing the bar?’ ” Currier said Wednesday, after the council’s decision was made public.

Dean Jay Conison of Charlotte Law seemed shocked about the ABA’s decision, saying, “Quite honestly, we really did not expect probation. Over the past couple of years we’ve been doing a lot to dramatically improve our admissions, bar prep and academic support.” Valparaiso Law Dean Andrea Lyon echoed his thoughts, noting, “We’ve made significant changes to respond to the current legal education climate already. Our admissions practices are stricter and stronger, and have been since I got here.”

Both schools are now at risk of losing their accreditation if they do not improve. Which law schools will be the next to face the ABA’s wrath? There are more than a handful of schools that could use the possible loss of accreditation as incentive to improve the quality of their entering classes, and thus, the lives of their graduates.

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ABA Sanctions Two More Law Schools for Lax Admissions [National Law Journal]


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. She’d love to hear from you, so feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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