Law Schools

Good Law Schools Are All Alike; Every Bad Law School Is Bad In Its Own Way

ABA seeks MDL treatment For InfiLaw suits.

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Now that Paul Clement is representing every InfiLaw school in a separate lawsuit against the ABA over accreditation decisions, the ABA has moved to consolidate the matters in a multidistrict litigation. The schools — Florida Coastal, Arizona Summit, and the dearly departed Charlotte — claim the ABA wronged them by bad-mouthing their academic standards while letting Cooley Law off the hook over the promise of mild reforms.

By the ABA’s reasoning, there’s no need to risk disparate rulings over basically the same dispute. The Kirkland & Ellis team representing the schools disagrees:

“Each one of the suits is different and was properly filed in the district where the particular law school is located,” said Kirkland & Ellis partner Chris Bartolomucci, who is representing InfiLaw alongside fellow partners Paul Clement and Viet Dinh. “The motion to transfer is a purely procedural maneuver to which the schools will respond.”

Of all the disingenuous bulls**t… Sure, we have three lawsuits all brought by corporate siblings, all represented by the same counsel, all against the same defendant, all alleging the same facts, but these are TOTALLY DIFFERENT. If, as we’ve been hypothesizing, Kirkland believes the ABA lacks the financial wherewithal to defend its accreditation calls, they want to force the ABA to fund three separate litigations. That doesn’t make this lack of candor acceptable.

Meanwhile, Cooley has made its case, through an ABA memo attached to a recent filing, that it truly deserved its absolution from the ABA. From the ABA Journal:

As of January 2018, Cooley Law students with predicted GPAs ranging from 2.24 to 2.49 are limited to taking between nine and 12 credit hours a term, according to the accreditation committee decision.

That’s… not really inspiring confidence. As David Frakt points out, there’s literally zero evidence that being a part-time student improves a student’s GPA. On the other hand, it does save them, at Cooley, from roughly $21K/year in tuition, so that’s nice.

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As I’ve said before, the InfiLaw schools have a valid complaint that they should get some slack if Cooley’s getting such a sweet deal. Where I disagree with the InfiLaw folks is over whether or not Cooley should have gotten that deal in the first place. It should surprise you not at all to learn that, after reading Cooley’s submission, Law School Transparency’s Kyle McEntee agrees on this point:

“It’s frustrating to read this. What it sounds like is that Cooley was able to get away with predatory admissions practices up until the ABA started paying attention, and once it was found out and they changed their tactics, they were absolved of any further responsibility. I’m not sure why the school does not deserve to be sanctioned for their noncompliance.”

And yet here we are. With Cooley receiving clemency, it’s hard not to read this as the ABA lacking the stomach to have a real throwdown over accreditation. Perhaps moving this to MDL can save the ABA enough money to really fight this.

If not, it’s hard to imagine law schools will face any oversight at all.

Defending For-Profit Law School Suits, ABA Pushes for Multidistrict Litigation [Law.com]

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Earlier: Yet Another Subpar Law School Sues The ABA In ‘Accreditation-By-Lawsuit’ Strategy
Another Terrible Law School Has Sued The ABA For Pointing Out That It’s Terrible
Law School Sues ABA For ‘Attacking Diversity’ And, Like, Doing Its Job
Law School Completely Wrecks State’s Bar Exam Pass Rate, As Usual

HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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