Law Schools

This Unaccredited Law School In California Is Closing Down

Lady Justice Law School in Bakersfield lasted only three years.

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Lady Justice Law School, we hardly knew ye.

Just three years after the unaccredited law school opened in Bakersfield, Calif., it’s shutting down.

The school recently told the State Bar it would submit a letter by Halloween surrendering its registration.

It wasn’t a good sign when Lady Justice told students in August that classes would be suspended just before they were set to begin. The students “were not informed of a date when classes would resume,” the bar said.

The students had not yet paid for tuition, and at least one of them has already transferred, the agency said. The bar said there were up to 10 students attending.

The school’s part-time JD program cost $400 a month and would take four years to complete, according to its website.

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“The purpose of Lady Justice Law School is to provide an affordable, quality education for working adults who might not have had the opportunity to fulfill their legal education dreams,” the website said.

The only other law school in the region is Kern County College of Law, which is state-accredited. The Bakersfield branch of Monterey College of Law opened in recent years.

“We have already received inquiries from former Lady Justice students who are willing to start over in order to be enrolled in an accredited program,” said Kern County College of Law Dean Mitch Winick.

Voicemails left for Lady Justice Law School were not returned.

Lady Justice’s planned closure comes a little more than a year after it received State Bar approval to move to a different location in Bakersfield.

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The new location was expected to generate cost savings that could be invested in Lady Justice’s educational program. A bar staff memo said the new location was also more convenient for students because it was just blocks from Kern County Superior Court.

Overall, the state’s nearly 20 unaccredited schools have drawn scrutiny from the media and the State Bar due to low bar exam passage rates and high student attrition.

The bar has sought in recent years to advance a plan to force the state’s unaccredited law schools to obtain accreditation or gradually shut down, but the agency has said there is resistance in the Legislature.

A top bar official said earlier this year that the agency may try to move their plan forward again after examining additional bar exam passage information.

The unaccredited institutions are not the only law schools in California that are struggling.

News emerged this week that the University of La Verne is considering closing its law school due to financial concerns and fears the American Bar Association-accredited institution may not be able to comply with a stricter ABA bar passage standard.

ABA-accredited Whittier Law School in Orange County is in the process of shutting down. ABA-accredited Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego is trying to fight off the loss of its ABA accreditation, a potential death knell, and previously lost the ability to accept students’ GI Bill benefits for a time .

In addition, ABA-accredited Western State College of Law fended off potential closure this spring.

Lyle Moran is a freelance writer in San Diego who handles both journalism and content writing projects. He previously reported for the Los Angeles Daily Journal, San Diego Daily Transcript, Associated Press, and Lowell Sun. He can be reached at lmoransun@gmail.com and found on Twitter @lylemoran.

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