Today the ABA Standards Review Committee posted materials relating to its upcoming (November 11-12) meeting. The materials include this Memorandum, from Jeffrey E. Lewis, Chair, Standards Review Committee & Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law, Saint Louis University:
The Standards Review Committee of the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is holding its first meeting of the academic year on November 11-12, 2011, at the Ritz Carlton Chicago. I am the new chair of the Committee; along with six additional new members, I will be joining seven continuing members of the Committee.
On Friday, November 11, the Committee will hold an open forum from 9:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Open Forum will provide the members of the Committee an opportunity to hear personally from those organizations and individuals who have an interest in the work of the Committee as it continues the comprehensive review of the Standards of Accreditation.
The majority of the time allotted for the forum will be assigned to invited organizations. Other interested individuals and entities are invited to speak during the last hour of the forum and will be allotted five minutes during this final hour on a first come basis.
The Committee will listen to interested constituents on Friday, as indicated. On Saturday the Committee will review and discuss the current work product. No action on any substantive matters will be taken at this November meeting.
Requests to speak should be sent to JR Clark, [email protected], by October 31, 2011. (Emphasis added.)
The SRC also posted the drafts of the Standards (with Reporter's Notes at the end of each chapter). As indicated in the Memorandum, there are no action items at this meeting.
With regard to Interpretation 301-6, the Reporter's Notes on Chapter 3 indicate
Interpretation 301-6, dealing with bar passage rates, was the subject of a SRC subcommittee. The subcommittee submitted proposed recommendations for changes in current Interpretation 301-6 specifically to raise the bar passage rate from 75% to 80% and from no more than 15 points below the pass rate in the jurisdiction to no more than 10 points below. After discussion, there was no consensus on making the change from the current requirements as set out in Interpretation 301-6. The SRC agreed that Interpretation 301-6 should be converted into a Standard and should become Standard 303 with other Standards renumbered accordingly.
Chapter 3, p. 37 (emphasis added). The existing draft of Interpretation 301-6 does not change 75%cumulative or -15% first-time benchmarks for Bar passage rates (Chapter 3, pp. 2-4), nor does it upgrade 301-6 from an Interpretation to a Standard. Again, the existing draft is only up for discussion at the meeting.
According to the 2011-12 SRC Meeting Schedule and the Section's Calendar, upcoming meeting dates of the SRC and the Section Council are:
- SRC meeting, January 14-15, 2012
- ABA Midyear meeting, February 1-7, 2012.
- Council meeting, March 16-16, 2012
- SRC meeting, April 27-28, 2021
- Council meeting and June 8-9, 2012
- SRC meeting, July 13-14
- ABA Annual meeting, August 2-7, 2012.
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