The ABA Role in General

Law schools approved by the American Bar Association (ABA) provide a legal education which meets a minimum set of standards as promulgated by the ABA. Every jurisdiction in the United States has determined that graduates of ABA-approved law schools are able to sit for the bar in their respective jurisdictions. The role that the ABA plays as the national accrediting body has enabled accreditation to become unified and national in scope rather than fragmented, with the potential for inconsistency, among the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and other territories.

Since its inception in 1878, the American Bar Association has been concerned with improving the quality of legal education. Following numerous studies of the educational programs available in the late 1880s and early 1900s, it was determined that a national process must be developed for ensuring the quality of the education of the prospective lawyer. Consequently, in 1921, the ABA adopted a statement for minimum standards of legal education and instituted a policy of publishing a list of law schools that complied with those standards.

As of August 2007, a total of 197 institutions are approved by the American Bar Association: 196 confer the first degree in law (the J.D. degree); the other ABA-approved school is the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's School, which offers an officer's resident graduate course, a specialized program beyond the first degree in law. Two of the ABA-approved law schools (Thomas Cooley and Widener) have branch campuses, and Penn State University, Dickinson School of Law, operates a second location. Eight of the 197 approved law schools are provisionally approved: Charleston School of Law; Faulkner University, Thomas Goode Jones School of Law; Florida A&M University College of Law; John Marshall Law School - Atlanta; the University of La Verne College of Law; Liberty University School of Law; Phoenix Law School; and Western State University College of Law.

With an increase in the number of approved law schools, total J.D. enrollment in approved schools has gone from approximately 91,225 students in 1971 to 141,031 in the fall of 2006. In that same period, enrollment of women increased from 8,567 to 69,753 and minority enrollment increased from 5,568 to 30,557.

The Council, the Standards, and the Accreditation Committee

The Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is the United States Department of Education recognized accrediting agency for programs that lead to the first professional degree in law. The law school approval process established by the Council is designed to provide a careful and comprehensive evaluation of a law school and its compliance with the Standards and Rules for Approval of Law Schools. A current copy of the Standards is available on the Section's website at www.abanet.org/legaled. Those Standards are reviewed frequently to ensure that they focus on matters that are central to quality legal education, and the Council and its Standards Review committee in August 2006 completed a complete review of the Standards that began in the fall of 2003. The Council, which ultimately adopts the Standards, has established an extensive process to seek comment on the Standards and possible revisions to the Standards by law school deans, law faculty, university presidents, leaders of the bar and judiciary, and others interested in legal education.

Decisions concerning the approval of a law school and its compliance with the Standards are ultimately made by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. The Council is comprised of 21 voting members, no more than ten of whom may be law school deans or faculty members. Other members of the Council include judges, practicing attorneys, one law student, and at least three "public" members who are neither lawyers nor employees of a law school. The Accreditation Committee, which exercises oversight of schools that have been approved by the Council and makes recommendations to the Council concerning a school's application for approval, is similarly constituted.

The Council and the Accreditation Committee are assisted by the thirteen-person full-time staff of the Office of the Consultant on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. As of September 1, 2006, Hulett H. (Bucky) Askew became the Consultant on Legal Education.

Provisional Approval

A law school may not apply for provisional approval by the ABA until it has been in operation for one year. Schools considering applying for provisional approval are strongly encouraged to contact the Office of the Consultant as early as possible, and well before the year in which the school applies for provisional approval. The Consultant or other senior members of the Consultant Office staff meet with representatives of schools seeking provisional approval and provide them with extensive information about the Standards for Approval of Law Schools, the Rules of Procedure, and the accreditation process.

A school must apply for provisional approval after classes have begun in the fall term and before October 15, so that a full site evaluation can be properly scheduled for late in the fall or early in the spring term. The school is required to develop an extensive Self-Study, which describes the school in detail, contains a critical evaluation of the school's strengths and weaknesses, establishes goals for the school's future progress and identifies the means of achieving those goals. The school also completes a Site Evaluation Questionnaire that provides much of the information that a site evaluation team needs to ascertain the basic facts concerning the school and its operation.

The Office of the Consultant appoints a site evaluation team of six or seven persons to undertake a site evaluation of the school. The team chairperson is always an experienced site evaluator and often-but not always-a present or former law school dean. The team usually consists of one or two academic law school faculty members, a law librarian, one faculty member with an expertise in professional skills instruction (clinic, simulation skills or legal writing), one judge or practitioner, and, except on teams visiting a law school that is not affiliated with a university or college, one university administrator who is not a member of a law faculty.

The site evaluation team carefully reviews the materials the school has provided and visits the school for a three-day period, often from Sunday afternoon through Wednesday morning following the schedule as outlined in the Section's Conduct Memo and on the Section Web site ( www.abanet.org/legaled). During that visit the team meets with the dean and other leaders of the faculty and law school administration, with the president and other university administrators (or, in the case of a free-standing law school, with the leadership of the board of trustees), and tries to have one member of the team meet individually with every member of the faculty. The team also visits as many classes it can during its visit in order to make judgments concerning the quality of instruction, holds an open meeting with students and meets with student leaders. In addition, the team meets with alumni and members of the bar and judiciary who are familiar with the school.

At the end of the visit (usually on Wednesday morning), the team meets with the dean and the president (or board chair) to provide an oral report of the team's findings. Shortly after leaving the school, the team drafts and finalizes an extensive written site evaluation report. The report covers all aspects of the school's operation, as outlined in the Section's Format Memo, including faculty and administration, the academic program, the student body and their success on the bar examination and in placement, student services, library and information resources, financial resources, and physical facilities and technological capacities.

The site evaluation team does not make judgments or reach conclusions as to whether the school complies with the Standards. Those judgments are made by the Accreditation Committee and, ultimately, the Council. The role of the site evaluation team is to provide a factual report that accurately and completely describes the situation of the school and that provides a comprehensive basis for the judgments that must be made by the Accreditation Committee and the Council.

The site evaluation report is sent to the Office of the Consultant. Then the report is sent to the school, which is given the opportunity to provide written corrections of any factual errors and other comment on the site report. Then the report is sent to the Accreditation Committee, which holds a hearing at which representatives of the school applying for provisional approval appear. After the hearing, the Accreditation Committee makes its recommendation concerning provisional approval to the Council.

A school that applies for provisional approval must establish that it "is in substantial compliance with each of the Standards and presents a reliable plan for bringing the school into full compliance with the Standards within three years after receiving provisional approval." The burden is on the school to establish that it fulfills these requirements. If the Accreditation Committee concludes that a school is in substantial compliance with the Standards and that the school has a reliable plan for coming into compliance, the Committee will recommend that the Council grant provisional approval. If the Committee concludes either that the school is not in substantial compliance or does not have a reliable plan to come into full compliance in three years, it will recommend against provisional approval.

When a school seeks provisional approval, the final decision on the school's application is made by the Council. The Accreditation Committee's findings of fact are binding on the Council unless those findings are not supported by substantial evidence in the record, but the Accreditation Committee's conclusions and recommendations are not binding on the Council.

If the decision of the Council is to grant provisional approval, that decision is final and effective immediately upon notice to the school. If the decision of the Council is to deny provisional approval, the school has the right to appeal to the House of Delegates and ask the House to refer the matter back to the Council. If the House refers the matter back to the Council, the application process continues with the Accreditation Committee and the Council again reviewing the school to determine whether it meets the standards for provisional approval. In the event of a referral back by the House, the Council's decision after the second referral back is final.

A school that is provisionally approved is entitled to all the rights of a fully approved law school. Similarly, graduates of provisionally approved law schools are entitled to the same recognition that is accorded graduates of fully approved schools.

Obtaining Full Approval

Once a school has obtained provisional approval, it remains in provisional status for at least three years. Unless extraordinary circumstances justify an extension, a school may not remain in provisional status for more than five years. In order to be granted full approval, a school must demonstrate that it is in full compliance with each of the standards; substantial compliance does not suffice. Again, the burden is upon the school to establish full compliance.

During a school's provisional status, the progress of the school is closely monitored. A visit to the school by a full site evaluation team is conducted in years two, four, and five after provisional approval, and a limited site evaluation by one or two site evaluators is conducted during years one and three. After each such site visit, a site evaluation report is submitted to the school and the Accreditation Committee. The Committee reviews the site report and the school's response and sends the school a letter that indicates any areas where the Committee concludes the school does not yet fully comply with the Standards.

In the year in which a school is considered for full approval, the process is identical to that undertaken in connection with an application for provisional approval. Decisions on full approval are made only by the Council, in reviewing the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the Accreditation Committee. The role of the House of Delegates in reviewing Council decisions on full approval is identical to the House's role concerning decisions on provisional approval.

Oversight of Fully Approved Schools

After a school is granted full approval, it undergoes a full site evaluation in the third year after full approval, and then a full sabbatical site evaluation every seven years. The site evaluation process and the review of the site report by the Accreditation Committee is very similar to that described in connection with a school's application for provisional approval.

The Accreditation Committee's actions upon review of a site report on a fully approved school are likely to take one of three forms. If the Committee concludes that the school fully complies with all the standards, it writes the school with that conclusion and indicates that the school remains on the list of approved schools. In the remainder of the cases, the Committee will conclude either that the school does not appear to comply with one or more of the standards, or that the Committee lacks sufficient information to determine whether or not the school complies. In either case the Committee's action letter will indicate with specificity the standard or standards with which the school does not comply, or as to which the Committee lacks sufficient information to determine compliance, and will ask the school by a specified time to provide the information necessary to enable the Committee to determine compliance or to indicate what steps the school has taken to bring itself into compliance.

The Standards for the Approval of Law Schools, the associated Rules of Procedure, additional information about the accreditation process, and other information about legal education may be found on this Web site.