Law Schools

St. Thomas College of Law and fired professor reach settlement

The St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law and a professor at the school have “agreed to amicably part ways,” according to a statement from the Florida-based law school to the ABA Journal.

Nov 12, 2024 10:51 AM CST

Bar pass rates climb nationwide for July exam

Bar pass rates for the July 2024 bar exam are strong throughout the country. The expectations were high for the class of 2024. In 2021, the year that this class entered law school, applications increased by 13%.

Nov 12, 2024 10:14 AM CST

Legal Ed council adds diversity and inclusion language back into law school standard proposal

The council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is reversing course, adding specific language regarding diversity and inclusion back into a contentious accreditation standard after an earlier attempt to broaden it drew criticism.

Nov 8, 2024 4:30 PM CST

Don’t give money to law schools unless they teach originalism, conservative federal appeals judge says

“Anti-originalist” law professors dominate law schools, and they aren’t equipping students with the practical knowledge that they need to make originalist arguments, a conservative federal appeals judge said last week in a lecture hosted by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Oct 29, 2024 12:17 PM CDT

California Supreme Court approves state’s Kaplan-created bar exam

Updated: The State Bar of California’s plan to create a new exam enabling the licensing test to be taken remotely, as well as at in-person test centers, has been green-lighted by the California Supreme Court, allowing the first administration of the Kaplan North America-developed test to move forward in February 2025.

Oct 24, 2024 9:34 AM CDT

‘The Calculator Mistake’: Denial, hostility won’t help lawyers deal with emergence of AI

My high school trigonometry teacher was, by his own admission, “old school.” He didn’t allow us to use calculators. Ever. Instead, all decimals had to be divided by hand, all formulas known by memory, and all square roots worked out on paper. We were unlikely to walk around with calculators when we got older, he explained, and so we had to be able to work things out with only a pencil and our brain.

Oct 23, 2024 2:00 PM CDT

Columbia law prof facing probe over campus-protest comments says firm ‘abruptly’ dropped her as client

A Columbia Law School professor has said in an ethics complaint a law firm “abandoned” her as a client during a probe of her comments about campus protests “with no notice and no explanation."

Oct 22, 2024 3:50 PM CDT

California Supreme Court shoots down portfolio bar exam proposal but clears path to state-specific exam

The California Supreme Court has rejected the proposal to run a pilot program for a pathway to licensure without taking the bar exam, but it did approve the bar developing “a California-specific bar examination” and offered content areas for a state-specific exam.

Oct 11, 2024 5:10 PM CDT

This law school is among the 1% that allow use of AI to write admissions essays

Can would-be law students use generative artificial intelligence programs, such as ChatGPT, to write admissions essays? Fifty-four percent of surveyed law schools have no official policy on the issue, according to a survey by test prep company Kaplan.

Oct 9, 2024 2:47 PM CDT

ABA changes description of Judicial Clerkship Program after conservative group sees ‘quotas’

The ABA updated the description of its Judicial Clerkship Program after a conservative group alleged that the language indicated that the association used racial “quotas” in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Annaliese Fleming, the ABA senior associate executive director and general counsel, said in…

Oct 9, 2024 2:00 PM CDT

Connecticut allows fully online law school grads of Purdue Global to take bar exam

Graduates of the Purdue Global Law School, described as the oldest wholly online law school, can now take the bar exam in a third state, as the Connecticut Bar Examining Committee voted Oct. 4 to follow the lead of California and Indiana.

Oct 8, 2024 3:24 PM CDT

Changes to ABA accreditation standard addressing race and diversity meet pushback

Contentious proposed changes to the ABA’s diversity and inclusion standard go too far and could reverse progress made toward making law schools diverse, according to several legal education groups that wrote to the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.

Oct 3, 2024 1:29 PM CDT

California plan to move bar exam to Kaplan sent back to state supreme court

California’s Committee of Bar Examiners approved launching a propriety bar exam to be created by Kaplan Exam Services for the February administration and will submit updated petitions for the California Supreme Court to reconsider.

Oct 1, 2024 1:48 PM CDT

Penn Law prof gets half-pay suspension for ‘discriminatory and disparaging statements’

A professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School will be suspended with half pay and full benefits for the 2025-2026 academic year because of her “discriminatory and disparaging statements."

Sep 25, 2024 8:51 AM CDT

California law deans have ‘grave concerns’ about new bar exam plans

Fifteen deans from ABA-accredited law schools have signed a letter to the California Supreme Court stating that they have “grave concerns” about Kaplan Exam Services’ ability to develop a multiple-choice bar exam “in a responsible manner” in time for the February 2025 administration of the newfangled exam.

Sep 20, 2024 12:54 PM CDT