Summary: Savannah Law School announced it will be closing its doors after the spring semester is over since the building has already been sold.
Spring semester will be the last for Savannah Law School. The school announced it will be closing to students and faculty Wednesday. ABA Journal reported that law school dean Malcolm Morris made the announcement during a town hall meeting. The faculty were told shortly before the meeting, according to Professor Andy Wright.
Morris explained during the meeting that the school building had been sold and they would be relocated to another location. The law school is a branch campus to Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School. Savannah Law School is a relatively new law school, first opening its door in 2012.
In the past year, three law schools have closed down or announced their plans to close. The schools are Indiana Tech Law School, Whittier Law School in California, and Charlotte School of Law in North Carolina. Valparaiso University School of Law in Indiana has suspended admissions as it seeks to move to a new location or combine with another school to survive.
ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Managing Director Barry Currier said, “We have not, however, been formally notified of closure and, to the best of my knowledge, the school has not yet made a formal public announcement.” He did say that they were contacted by the law school.
The branch campus will follow the ABA rule regarding school closures and teach-out plans. The rule stipulates that deciding to close a school must be publicly announced by the school and then immediately reported to Currier’s office. Once that is done, the school must submit a teach-out plan that allows student an option to finish their studies. The ABA section governing ABA accreditation reviews the plan and either approves it or gives it back to the school for changes. Currier explained, “If, indeed, the school intends to close, we assume that those first steps will happen soon.”
The school meeting stated that the law school’s current students will be relocated until graduation but were not told where they would be relocated. The school will remain open until graduation in May. The only thing is that their graduation ceremony will be held at another location, the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum.
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To learn more about law schools planning on closing, read these articles:
- Whittier Law School Left with No Buyer, Forced to Close Doors
- Cooley Law School Cites Costs in Plans to Shutter Ann Arbor Campus
- Charlotte School of Law Misses Two Deadlines, Asks for Extension
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