Federal student financial aid yanked at Charlotte School of Law

Updated: After reportedly making “substantial misrepresentations” to current and prospective students regarding its compliance with ABA accreditation standards, Infilaw System’s Charlotte School of Law will lose its federal student financial aid, the Department of Education announced Monday. “The ABA repeatedly found that the Charlotte School of Law does not prepare…

Dec 19, 2016 2:35 PM CST

Women outnumber men in law schools for first time, newly updated data show

Although 80 percent of ABA-accredited law schools had double-digit percentage decreases for students admitted, bloggers observed following Thursday’s annual release of Standard 509 Information Reports data, this year marked the first time that women outnumber men as JD students. The reports, required for accredited law schools, include tuition costs, students’…

Dec 19, 2016 9:03 AM CST

What’s the best way to share a school’s bad bar exam results? These deans have some thoughts

David Faigman, the acting dean at University of California Hastings College of the Law, didn’t know that he’d get individual notice of bar passage rates. But one Friday afternoon in early December, his assistant brought him a letter informing him that Hastings’ July 2016 first-time pass rate was 51 percent.…

Dec 16, 2016 2:10 PM CST

Slight increase in 1Ls for 2016, new ABA data shows

Total enrollment for ABA-accredited law schools decreased by 2.6 percent in the past year, but for first-year classes, there was an increase of 0.1 percent, according to Standard 509 Information Reports data released Thursday. The reports are required for accredited law schools, and can be found on a ABA Section…

Dec 15, 2016 1:10 PM CST

With question of accreditation looming, Texas OKs bar exam for UNT Dallas law grads

Corrected: While the University of North Texas Dallas College of Law is pursuing ABA accreditation, the state supreme court on Tuesday granted a request from the dean that its graduates be able to sit for the July 2017 bar exam. Texas law prohibits graduates from non-accredited law schools from talking…

Dec 15, 2016 11:45 AM CST

Are these law schools the most underrated?

Is the University of Kentucky the most underrated law school? The school is ranked No. 60 by U.S. News & World Report, even though 92 percent of its most recent graduates found full-time, long-term positions that require a JD or for which a JD is an advantage.

Dec 8, 2016 7:00 AM CST

ABA grants accreditation to Massachusetts’ only public law school

The University of Massachusetts School of Law-Dartmouth, established in 2010, now has full ABA accreditation. The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar granted the approval (PDF) at its December 2016 meeting in New Orleans. The law school has had provisional accreditation since 2012.…

Dec 7, 2016 12:15 PM CST

10 to 15 law schools could close if enrollment keeps shrinking, higher-ed market analyst says

Although there’s been a contraction in the law school market, tuition continues to rise, including at private institutions that take first-year students with lower LSAT scores and have high attrition rates, says Robert Zemsky, a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania. Zemsky predicts several of these schools will…

Dec 1, 2016 11:30 AM CST

Mobile Justice: Minnesota law school takes pro bono work on the road

In most parts of the country, recreational vehicles are typically used for leisure activities. But in Minnesota, a 20-year-old RV has been retrofitted for a new purpose: to house the Mobile Law Network, a traveling pro bono law office.

Dec 1, 2016 4:10 AM CST

Law schools expect applications to increase, but grads’ job data shows decline

Dec 1, 2016 1:40 AM CST

More women are attending law school, but at lower-ranked schools, study finds

More women are attending law school, but their numbers at top-ranked institutions aren’t keeping up the pace, a recent study found. While women make up roughly half of all law students at ABA-accredited schools, they are overrepresented at lower-ranked schools. The study was conducted by Deborah Jones Merritt, a Ohio…

Nov 30, 2016 4:30 PM CST

Several law profs land on watch list of academics who advance ‘leftist propaganda’

Harvard law professor Mark Tushnet says he isn’t bothered by his inclusion on a conservative group’s new watch list of leftist professors. “It’s not a big deal,” Tushnet tells the Harvard Crimson. “It comes with the territory.” Tushnet is among nearly 200 professors on the “Professor Watchlist” created by the…

Nov 29, 2016 10:10 AM CST

Former UC Berkeley law dean drops suit over school’s handling of sex harassment allegations

The former law dean of the University of California at Berkeley has dropped a lawsuit seeking to stop a school disciplinary proceeding initiated due to allegations he sexually harassed his one-time assistant. The former dean, Sujit Choudhry, dropped the suit on Tuesday after a federal judge’s refusal to interfere with…

Nov 18, 2016 7:00 AM CST

ABA puts one law school on probation and censures another

The ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar announced on Tuesday that it is placing the Charlotte School of Law on probation and publicly censuring Valparaiso University School of Law. The section said it is taking the actions because both schools were out of compliance with ABA…

Nov 17, 2016 1:36 PM CST

Law prof who wore blackface at Halloween party ‘wounded our community,’ university president says

A University of Oregon law professor who wore blackface to her off-campus Halloween party “wounded our community,” according to a letter to students written by university president Michael Schill. Regardless of her intentions, Schill said, law professor Nancy Shurtz was wrong to choose such a costume, report the Oregonian and…

Nov 8, 2016 10:09 AM CST