Five Profs Resign at American Justice Law School, Call for Dean’s Ouster

Law Schools

Five Profs Resign at American Justice Law School, Call for Dean’s Ouster

Posted Feb 4, 2008, 06:51 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Five professors at the American Justice School of Law in Paducah, Ky.—about one-fourth of the faculty—resigned effective Friday, saying they won’t come back until the dean of the for-profit school submits his resignation.

Dean Paul Hendrick has been named in a $120 million lawsuit by more than 30 students. The plaintiffs claim Hendrick, the school’s majority shareholder, and other administrators sought "to enrich themselves at the expense of students," the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.

The suit alleges administrators applied for loans in students’ names and then withheld some of the money, and interfered with students’ ability to transfer to new schools by lowering their grades and delaying disclosure that the ABA had denied accreditation.

The school charges $13,250 a semester for tuition, but some students said there was no toilet paper in the restrooms, copiers and printers often had no paper, and the lights were once turned off in the library because the school couldn’t pay its bills.

Hendrick has previously denied the charges and claimed that two law professors were behind the complaints so they could reduce the value of the school and buy it in a hostile takeover.

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Posted by Elvin Gorbachev - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 9 hours, 53 minutes ago

Talk about dysfunctional lawyers! I’d be sorry if I went to this poor school. Imagine spending this kind of money and not even having toilet paper? I suppose the dean doesn’t need to dump, but the rest of us sure do.
Posted by rana muhamamd akram khan - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 9 hours, 48 minutes ago

nice sending of this sdsite
Posted by BIGLAW 1ST YEAR - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 9 hours, 19 minutes ago

This is the risk students take when they go to a crappy law school. Seriously, did they think they would have any return on investment?
Posted by Roger Canseco - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 9 hours, 10 minutes ago

Hmm. $27,000/year to attend a 4th-tier law school in backwoods Kentucky that can’t even keep its fiscal head above water. And these great-decision-making future attorneys will soon be our peers in the workforce. Be afraid. Be very, very, afraid.
Posted by Dan - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 8 hours, 7 minutes ago

4th tier? Considering how inaccurate the USN&WR “rankings” are anyway, it will probably be Top 25 if they just get a donation from Scott Tissue.
Posted by Mark Pitchford - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 8 hours, 6 minutes ago

Backwoods Kentucky?

I’ll be that my UK College of Law and UofL School of Law outrank your law school and the graduates outperform you “biglaw 1st year”.

I can already see that your elitist attitude will be your downfall in front of a jury.

On a side note, this is clearly a fly by night operation, but the true winners I see always come from Phoenix and New York for some reason.
Posted by Billy - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 7 hours, 29 minutes ago

Hey Mark - Paducah ain’t Louisville or Lexington. I bet most UK grads would consider it backwoods too.
Posted by Jennifer Baker - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes ago

Here, here, Mark! This has nothing to do with the school being in Kentucky - there are plenty of these types of sub-par schools all over the country. Just take California, for example. But hey, I guess it makes sense to degrade those students as somehow lesser than you, Roger, just because they may have to go to a 4th tier school in “backwoods Kentucky” to join your holier-than-thou ranks in the legal profession. By the way, as a fellow UK Law grad - Paducah is not, actually, a scene out of “Deliverance.”
Posted by YOURKIDDINGRIGHT? - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 5 hours, 26 minutes ago

What the heck????
The school charges $13,250 a semester for tuition, but some students said there was no toilet paper in the restrooms, copiers and printers often had no paper, and the lights were once turned off in the library because the school couldn’t pay its bills>”

Why the hell is the school still operating? SHUT IT DOWN!!!!
Posted by DNP - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 4 hours, 58 minutes ago

Didn’t these students visit the campus before they decided to attend? They might not have known about the fraud, but they probably would’ve used the bathroom while on campus.
Posted by Kurt - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 3 hours, 58 minutes ago

It is true, if you go to a 3rd-4th tier law school, things can be rough landing a good job out of school. I went to a 3rd tier in CA but planned on going solo, it has worked very well, few clients ask where i went to school, most ask what i can do for them. Without the big overhead and the partners lifestyle to support i net 20-30K a month and rarely work more than 40-45 hours a week. Advice to all prospective 1L’s DO YOUR HOMEWORK.
Posted by MJ - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 3 hours, 16 minutes ago

Kurt, Can I have a job with you? I went to a top-tier school and make peanuts. downeydouble@yahoo.com
Posted by K - 6 months, 3 weeks, 6 days, 1 hour, 40 minutes ago

Why is everyone so quick to blame and disparage the victims here? I’m not connected to KY in any way - I went to a big 10 school - but I’m shocked and saddened by how much venom I continually see contributed in the comments to the ABA weekly journal articles. Are there any attorneys out there who are not chomping at the bit to put down other attorneys and law students? Apparently we have gone beyond just having the public hate us; now we even hate each other.
Posted by MB - 6 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 17 hours, 13 minutes ago

K, great post!
Posted by Chauntel Bland - 6 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 6 hours, 30 minutes ago

Who would pay $13, 250 to attend a non-accredited law school? I don’t know about Kentucky but in some states, you can’t take the bar exam if you don’t graduate from an accredited law school.
Posted by Eleanor - 6 months, 3 weeks, 3 days, 18 hours, 29 minutes ago

If the allegations of the students’ suit are true, I commend the profs who resigned for, among other things, bringing this issue to the attention of the public, including the school’s prospective students. Also, I second K’s post (#13), and I’d like to wish much-needed luck to people whose reaction to this story is “what idiots would go to a crappy school in the backwoods.” You will need luck because your clients will soon realize that despite the name or rank of the law school you attended, your ability to spot issues and judge legal problems, in contract to your vanity, are severely debilitated. As Kurt points out, when it comes to success, where one went to school takes a backseat to competence.
Posted by Abbie - 6 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 18 hours, 30 minutes ago

Thank you, Eleanor, Kurt and K for posting informed, realistic, and relevant comments. I actually attended AJSL for two years before I transferred to another school. I chose to go to an unaccredited school (risky, I know) because I lived in the area, had just had a baby and this school offered me an opportunity to pursue a career and take care of my baby with the help of my family. I now attend an accredited school and have found that, though the school was deficient in copy paper, the education provided to me by the outstanding professors (former judges, practicing attorneys, and academically respected scholars) was more than stellar. I am proud to have studied under great minds that rival any professor whom I have the current privilege of knowing. The point being, I am an intelligent woman with goals and am positive that I will be a fully competent attorney when I graduate and pass the bar. So I didn’t go to a top 10 school. I am sure there are graduates of 1st tier schools that have turned out to be really crappy lawyers. Don’t judge a book by its cover and don’t judge a lawyer by the name of the school on the top of their diploma.

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