Looks like the ABA is getting tough on underperforming schools — well, at least on Ave Maria School of Law.
As ATL’s own Joe Patrice noted to The Ave Herald, “Ave Maria has stumbled into the ABA crosshairs at a really awkward moment.” See, the Department of Education is thinking ’bout taking away the ABA’s ability to accredit law schools, all because they hand out credentials with the same ease as Donald Trump retweets white supremacists. And as a result, we have the lowest rates of bar exam passage and a generation of law school grads that have the debt but not the .esq to show for their time in law school.
Despite how good commentators may feel about the tightening of law school standards, none of this is helpful to the folks at Ave Maria who were told by the ABA that their admissions practices were out of compliance. As The Ave Herald reports:
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The standards the law school was found to be out of compliance with require the school to have “sound admissions policies and practices” and admit only applicants who “appear capable of satisfactorily completing its program of legal education and being admitted to the bar.”
They do have some time to get their house in order:
The ABA directed Ave Maria Law to develop a plan to bring it into compliance and submit it by Sept. 1, and said a “fact finder” will be appointed to visit the school by Oct. 1 to review the admissions policies and practices.
“The finding of noncompliance with the standard on admissions is a disappointment but not a cause for alarm,” the school’s president, Kevin Cieply, said in an email statement to school staff and alumni.
Cieply is hopeful that the incoming class, with their higher grades and test scores, will make a difference in the school’s long-term prospects. As long as they’re capable of passing the bar exam, everyone will be a lot better off.
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American Bar Association Finds Ave Maria’s Admissions Practices Lacking [The Ave Herald]
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).