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ABA Places Atlanta-Based Law School On Probation

An Atlanta-based law school is in hot water with the ABA.
Yahoo Finance reports that Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School has been placed on probation by the ABA following the school’s responses to a sanctions letter regarding its accreditation last year.
Noncompliance With Multiple ABA Accreditation Standards
On December 13, according to Yahoo Finance, the ABA issued a probation notice after it had a hearing in November to determining whether or not additional sanctions were needed.
The ABA determined that the law school remained in “substantial” and “persistent” noncompliance with multiple ABA accreditation standards including:

  • Maintaining a “rigorous” program of legal education that prepares students for admission to the bar and for jobs in the legal profession.
  • Providing academic support that would give students “a reasonable opportunity” to graduate and secure jobs as lawyers.
  • Not admitting applicants who are unlikely to complete law school or pass the bar exam.

Action Required
Going forward, the law school is required to take a number of steps to bring itself into compliance.
Those steps, according to the ABA’s letter, include:

  • Develop a written reliable plan for bringing the law School into compliance.
  • Provide its admissions data and methodology for the fall 2019 class.
  • Report bar examination results for its graduates who sat for the bar examination in the State of Georgia.
  • Provide admitted students a letter reporting the fact that the Law School has been placed on probation and of the specific remedial actions the Law School is required to take, including a copy of this statement.
  • Publish this statement or a link to this statement on the Law School’s website in a form and place(s) acceptable to the Managing Director’s Office including under “ABA Required Disclosures” and in the “About” tab under “Accreditation” on the websites of both the Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School and the Law School’s branch campus in Savannah.
  • While on probation, advise each law student on Georgia first-time bar examination passage rates, by class quartiles, for Law School graduates sitting for the Georgia bar examination over the six administrations preceding the semester and the class quartile into which the student then falls.
  • Appoint a fact finder to visit the Law School to review the admissions data and admissions methodology provided by the Law School, as well as the overall rigor of its program of legal education.

The law school has acknowledged the ABA’s decision on its website.
“Meeting this mission does not come without challenges,” the statement says. “The law school is committed to working with the American Bar Association to continue producing high quality lawyers who ensure all communities have access to legal services.”
Sources: Yahoo Finance, ABA
 

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