Year In Review

2. PROVISIONAL OR FULL ABA APPROVAL GRANTED TO FIVE LAW SCHOOLS; ACCREDITATION STANDARDS REVISED

The Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is the national accrediting body for American law schools. It seeks to provide a fair, effective and efficient accrediting system that promotes quality legal education, and to be a creative national force providing leadership and services to those responsible for and those who benefit from a sound program of legal education and bar admissions.

In pursuing its mission this year, the section granted provisional ABA approval to Faulkner University, Thomas Goode Jones School of Law in Montgomery, Ala.; the University of La Verne College of Law in Ontario, Calif.; and Liberty University School of Law in Lynchburg, Va. Two schools were granted full ABA approval during the 2005-06 academic year: Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., and the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. As of July 1, 2006, 194 institutions are approved by the ABA – 193 confer the first degree in law; the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's School offers an officer's resident graduate course, a specialized course beyond the first degree.

Over the course of the academic year, the section's Standards Review Committee developed revisions to Standards 210-212, related to equal opportunity and diversity, standards that had not been altered for a number of years despite changes in the law and in institutional practices. The revisions provide greater clarity for schools as to both what is permitted and what is required. It has been erroneously asserted in public discussion that the revised Interpretation 211-1 requires law schools to violate state law in order to comply with ABA Standards. That and other misconceptions are addressed in the report that accompanied the request for concurrence by the ABA House of Delegates. The House of Delegates concurred unanimously with the recommendations of the section.

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