Despite making a gesture at making an alternative sale of the school to a more respectable buyer, U.S. magistrate judges George Kosko and Robert Carr are going ahead with their plan to sell Charleston School of Law to InfiLaw System. The decision outrages many alumni and current students who do not want to see the value of their investment in a JD from Charleston deflate to the equivalent of a diploma from a “diploma mill,” which critics of InfiLaw characterize their three other schools to be.
Having made the decision, and sent a letter to Charleston School of Law community Wednesday stating that they are going ahead, some are wondering why the suggestions of Edward Westbrook, also a founder, and board member of the school were ignored. He sneered at the gesture “a phony deadline to sweeten the pot” for themselves, and instead suggested that the school could pay Kosko and Carr a portion of their shares, and keep the school a limited liability corporation till the school is stable; or, alternatively, Kosko and Carr could redeem all their interests, as did two other of the founding members; or as a third alternative they could transfer ownership of the school to the college of Charleston — and if the last were done, Westbrook said he would donate his third of the ownership of the school.
Nevertheless, Kosko and Carr are sticking to their ostensible display of having tried to sell the school, stating that “No one submitted an application wanting to buy the law school. While some people and groups have proposed vague alternative proposals, no one has come forwards saying, ‘We want to buy the law school, and here are our plans to run it.’” The few months it has been “on the market” are hence deemed sufficient.
Among those disappointed with this direction is Daniel Cooper, president of the law school’s Student Bar Association, who would have preferred the school meet to discuss its future.