Law Schools

ABA Finally Puts Law School Poster Child For Piss-Poor Bar Pass And Employment Rates On Probation

What does this mean for the future of the law school?

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‘Why can’t we pass the bar exam?!’

Late last month, after reporting on two law schools that had been found to be “significantly out of compliance” with accreditation requirements (Florida Coastal School of Law and Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School), we wondered which law school would be the next to face the American Bar Association’s wrath. Today, we have an answer to that question, and boy, is it a doozy.

On Tuesday afternoon, after finding the school to be out of compliance with numerous standards required to maintain accreditation, the ABA (finally) put the Thomas Jefferson School of Law on probation.

Thomas Jefferson was first put on notice that it was out of compliance with accreditation standards in May. If you recall, TJSL was the first law school to be sued over its allegedly deceptive employment statistics. The case inspired more than a dozen other class-action lawsuits to be filed against law schools for publishing allegedly deceptive employment statistics and salary data in order to bait new students into enrolling, but the Thomas Jefferson case was the only one to go to trial.

Here’s a relevant excerpt from the ABA’s public memorandum to the school:

The Council determined that the Law School’s present and anticipated financial resources, admissions practices, academic program, and bar passage outcomes have resulted in the Law School now being in a position where only immediate and substantial action can bring about sufficient change to put the Law School on a realistic path back to operating in full compliance within the time allowed by the Standards and Rules of Procedure.

Thomas Jefferson must take remedial actions with regard to its noncompliance with Standards 202(a), 202(d), 301(a), 501(a) and 501(b), as well as Interpretations 501-1 and 501-2, and must submit a plan to the ABA outlining how the school will change its ways by February 16, 2018. In March 2018, a fact finder will visit the school to examine the administration’s plans for change to bring TJSL into compliance with accreditation standards. Specifically, Thomas Jefferson has been found to be out of compliance with standards which require that it has “financial resources available … sufficient for it to … carry out its program of legal education” without its financial condition having a “negative and material effect on its ability to operate in compliance,” has “sound admissions policies and procedures,” admits only applicants who “appear capable of satisfactorily completing its program of legal education and being admitted to the bar,” maintains “a rigorous program of legal education that prepares its students, upon graduation, for admission to the bar,” and provides reasonable academic support such that students will be able to “complete the program of legal education, graduate, and become members of the legal profession.”

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Until Thomas Jefferson is found to be in compliance with the ABA’s accreditation standards, it must send all applicants a letter or email detailing the school’s first-time bar examination passage rates in comparison with California’s first-time bar examination passage rates for the past four administrations of the exam. While it’s clear that the ABA has good intentions, we’re not sure what effect this will have on applicants to the law school. After all, it’s common knowledge that graduates of Thomas Jefferson have little to no luck when it comes to passing the bar exam.

To that end, while the results of the July 2017 California bar exam have not yet been released, we can look to graduates’ recent passage rates to display how poorly they’ve been performing. Last summer, only 31 percent of Thomas Jefferson graduates who took the California bar exam for the first time were able to pass (down 16.7 percentage points from July 2015, and second only to Whittier, which recently announced its closure due, in part, to its low bar passage rates).

On top of the law school’s poor bar exam passage rates, its employment statistics leave much to be desired. Ten months after graduation, only 22 percent of the class of 2016 was employed in full-time, long-term jobs where bar passage was required. For the class of 2015, that figure was 24 percent.

President and Dean Joan Bullock delivered the bad news to students via email yesterday, noting that the school was “disappointed” with the Council’s decision. Bullock included an FAQ with the email, which contained the following information:

What is the Law School doing to address the ABA’s concerns about the academic program?

The Law School’s academic program features integrated academic support across the curriculum. The committed faculty use innovative techniques and provide personalized feedback.

To better prepare students for the bar, the faculty are including more practice in multiple choice and writing skills in required classes. In addition, the Law School has expanded the required curriculum to ensure that far more students take bar preparation courses. It has also added one-on-one mentoring for students to create individual bar study plans.

The Law School is also focused on continuing to improve preparation for the bar for graduates, offering additional extensive support and incentives for effective bar study as well as the First Timers mentoring program. All of these efforts complement the innovative skills classes, Centers of Academic Excellence, and clinical and externship opportunities.

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Later in the FAQ, the administration states that it is not admitting applications who do not appear capable of graduating and passing the bar exam; instead, the law school “believes all its admitted students have the potential of passing the bar exam and being successful professionals.” Here are the entering admissions profiles for TJSL since 2010. As you can see, its LSAT scores and GPAs have absolutely plummeted:

Upon seeing these numbers, Thomas Jefferson’s belief that all of the students it admits — who range from being at an “extreme risk” to a “high risk” of failing the bar exam — doesn’t seem at all credible. These students are being taken advantage of.

In the FAQ, the administration also claims that the law school is “meeting its financial obligations and will continue prudent financial management.” You may remember that in 2014, after missing payments on its bonds, Standard & Poor’s seriously downgraded its long-term rating on the California Statewide Communities Development Authority’s series 2008A tax-exempt revenue bonds and series 2008B taxable revenue bonds issued for Thomas Jefferson from “B+” to “CC.” At the time, S&P said there was “little prospect” for the school’s recovery, and right now, almost four years later, the ABA seems to agree.

What will happen to the Thomas Jefferson School of Law? More importantly, what will happen to all of the students who continue to fund the law school with nondischargeable federal student loan dollars? Will Thomas Jefferson be able to somehow escape liability, as it did during the landmark Alaburda trial? For the sake of those students, we hope that Thomas Jefferson works hard to clean up its act, before the school winds up in an even more difficult situation.

(Flip through the following pages to see Thomas Jefferson School of Law’s probation notice from the ABA as well as the law school’s FAQ to students.)

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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