ABA Places Charlotte Law On Probation & Censures Valpo Law

Today, the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar announced it is placing Charlotte Law School on probation for non-compliance with ABA Standards 301(a), 501(a), and 501(b).  The remedial steps ordered include: 

The Law School shall, by December 15, 2016, supply to the Committee its admissions data and admissions methodology, which includes the Law School’s
admissions practices and policies, for the fall 2017 entering class. Where factors other than grade point average and LSAT are used to support an admissions
decision, the Law School shall report those factors, explain how they are determined and applied in the review of applicant files, and report on any analyses that have been done or are contemplated to review the outcomes of admissions decisions based on these factors.

and

Until the Law School is determined by the Accreditation Committee or the Council to be operating in compliance with Standards 301(a), 501(a), and 501(b), each semester, within 30 days of the completion of the assignment and distribution of semester grades for the Law School’s students, the Law School shall advise each Law School student, in writing, of the following, in the same communication: (a) the North and South Carolina first-time bar examination passage rates, by class quartiles, for Law School graduates sitting for the North and South Carolina bar examinations over the six administrations preceding the semester for which results are known; and (b) the class quartile into which the student then falls. The Law School shall provide evidence to the Managing Director’s office, within five days of its distribution to students, that the required information has been appropriately and timely communicated.

At the same time, the ABA Committee censured Valparaiso Law for non-compliance with Standards 501(a) and 501(b).  The notice is here.  The remedial steps ordered for Valpo were similar. 

The ABA Standards are here.

Comments

[Captain Hruska Carswell, Continuance King]

Double Secret Probation for all I care. Why does the ABA have any authority to regulate law schools? The ABA is private trade association like the American Trucking Association or AOPA. Does the AOPA have authority to yank a pilot certificate to fly? No. President George was absolutely correct to revoke the ABA's input over Supreme Court nominations.

[fyi]

Dean Conison joined the Charlotte School of Law in April 2013. From 1998 until March 2013, he was Dean of the Valparaiso University Law School in Valparaiso, Indiana.
Dean Conison’s scholarly and professional work focuses on issues in legal education and the business of law schools. He has served as Reporter for the American Bar Association Task Force on the Future of Legal Education and has been Chair of the Accreditation Committee of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. He currently serves as a Vice President of the North Carolina Bar Association.

[Jojo]

This is the first step in the blood letting. We've almost reached the point of law school sacrifice followed by cannabalization of the dead school'a body. Read more in the forthcoming legal scholarship: "Ritualistic anthropological analogs in the law school reform movement: two views from the stew pot."

[anon]

Jojo

FYI's comment is interesting. Was this just politics? A ritualistic censure to divert attention in order to declare the problem solved?

[Leo]

Hope Conison likes Charlotte. Doubt he would be hired to run another law s hoo, with this track record. MYbe should have spent less time in loved with the ABA and more running his schools.