Duncan School of Law Denied Appeal for Accreditation Suit

The Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law might be out of luck now that it has been denied an appeal to fight for ABA approval. On April 2, U.S. District judge Thomas Varlan of Tennessee declined to reconsider his previous refusal to order the American Bar Association to accredit Duncan. He said Duncan hadn’t brought any new evidence or arguments.

The wrangling began on Dec 20 with the ABA’s Council of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar rejected Duncan’s application for provisional accreditation. They complained of Duncan’s strategic planning, their academic standards and achievements, and the academic credentials of incoming students. Two days later, Duncan filed an antitrust suit against the ABA in an attempt to force accreditation. When Varlan denied their request on Jan. 18, Duncan filed a formal appeal with the ABA the very  next day, and requested Varlan’s reconsideration on Feb. 8. It seems none of these avenues have panned out for Duncan.

The average GPA of the class of 2011 was 3.01 for full time students, and the average LSAT score 147, representing the lower 33% of all LSAT test takers.  Nevertheless, Duncan viewed ABA’s selection to be a tact to limit the number or new lawyers, and thus had formed the basis of its antitrust suit. Numerous students have dropped out of the school once ABA accreditation was denied, with one student suing for “negligent enrollment.”