The hearing lasted almost 5 hours, following which Judge Varlan stated he would look closely at each side’s argument in addition to focusing on hundreds of pages of court documents filed during the prior week. He reported it could be as long as 2 weeks before he would make a ruling on the request for a temporary restraining order.

The Duncan School of Law is located in Knoxville, Tennessee. The school had just learned of its denial for accreditation and within 2 days had filed suit. The law school is arguing that the denial is an attempt to limit competition for the decreasing pool of applications for law school.

Michael Cioffi is a Cincinnati-based lawyer who is representing Lincoln Memorial. He feels that the existence of the school itself is in jeopardy as it would be very hard for a law school to bounce back from such a blow to its reputation. Cioffi argues that the bar association evaluated the school using guidelines that were not a part of its own written rules. He states there is a contradiction between the board’s decision now and the evaluation by its own team that had visited the campus in March.

Anne Rae is an attorney for the bar association. She feels the court should not rule on the case yet because the school can still file for an appeal. She also fears that other schools will feel they can take the bar to court if they are unhappy with the outcome of their accreditation.

Lincoln Memorial officials have reported they do not plan to file an appeal, even though they have until January 19 to do so. The administration is not eager to continue with the legal proceedings because the council that denied accreditation to the school also appoints the panel to which the school would need to file an appeal. The American Bar Association states this is a common situation in review processes.

Rae also states that since the ABA’s denial is not final, requiring the bar to remove such information from its website is a violation of First Amendment rights. She also points out that the school’s media attention did more to inform the public that the school has been denied accreditation than did anything on the bar’s website. Cioffi denied that such publicity was the culprit, but rather that future students may be discouraged from attending Duncan because it had been denied accreditation. He felt that removing the information from the ABA’s website would help prevent damage to the school’s reputation while awaiting a final decision by the court.

• Duncan School of Law Sues ABA
• ABA Tells Judge not to Overrule Denial of Duncan School of Law
• Denying Accreditation Gets ABA Sued
• Proposed Law School Accreditation Standards to Change Reporting of Graduate Employment
• Changing of the Guard at the ABA

The American Bar Association has made new drafts to its law school accreditation standards.  These proposed changes would change the way that law schools report employment information for their graduates, as well as making the requirements for passing the bar stricter, and allowing distance education students to take more credit hours.  Several other major changes have also been proposed.

According to a letter from the consumer information subcommittee of the Standards Review Committee of the ABA, the requirement that exists for law schools to publish “placement rates” and “basic consumer information” leaves a lot open to interpretation.

The subcommittee also wrote the following: “Not surprisingly, with such a vague standard, schools’ practices vary widely.  Some schools provide detailed information; others provide a bare minimum.”

According to the new proposal, the employment status of students after nine months would be disclosed by law schools, in addition to the percentage of the students in law school-funded jobs.  They would also be required to give information about the percentage of graduates with employment that requires bar passage and those who hold non-legal jobs.  Schools will also be required to specify how many students they have in part-time and full-time jobs.

These proposals will be discussed in Chicago by the Standards Review Committee on April 2 and 3.  It will have an open forum as part of the meeting so that other parties can give their own comments about the proposals.

• Changing of the Guard at the ABA
• ABA Tells Judge not to Overrule Denial of Duncan School of Law
• Duncan School of Law Sues ABA
• The John Marshall Law School Launches New Law School in Savannah
• Law Schools Offering More Opportunities to Study Abroad

The ABA is the world’s largest voluntary membership professional organization, counting over 40,000 members on its rolls. Among other things, the ABA is in charge of law school accreditation.

• Proposed Law School Accreditation Standards to Change Reporting of Graduate Employment
• ABA Tells Judge not to Overrule Denial of Duncan School of Law
• Duncan School of Law Sues ABA
• The John Marshall Law School Launches New Law School in Savannah
• Law Schools Offering More Opportunities to Study Abroad