Association of American Law Schools creates new task force on legal education regulation
With the law school accreditation process coming under increased scrutiny since the start of the start of the second Trump administration, the Association of American Law Schools announced Tuesday the formation of a wide-ranging task force dedicated to examining the quality of legal education.
In an Aug. 11 press release, the Association of American Law Schools announced the formation of a National Task Force on the Regulation of American Legal Education. The group of 15 judges, legal educators, lawyers and higher education leaders will examine a wide range of issues, such as how prepared graduates are for the work force and how law schools are accredited—including the role of the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar in that process.
The members of the task force were deliberately chosen to represent a broad perspective on legal education and practice and will scrutinize the future of law school accreditation and pathways to bar admission, Kellye Y. Testy, the CEO and the executive director of the AALS, told the ABA Journal.
Who isn’t included in the group is a representative of the council of the ABA’s Legal Ed Section.
“We wanted to make sure we had independence from any existing accreditor. We wanted the distance to take a fresh look,” says Testy, a 2022 Journal Legal Rebel, who noted that the council, the only accreditor of law schools accredited by the Department of Education, was informed ahead of the announcement.
“We look forward to considering the findings of the task force as part of a broader conversation about the future of legal education,” Melissa Hart, the chair of the council, added in a statement to the Journal. “The council always appreciates engagement in law school accreditation, especially from groups like AALS that understand legal education.”
Law schools need accreditation by a nationally recognized body for their students to receive financial aid, and most states require bar candidates to have graduated from an ABA-accredited school.
The new group comes at a critical time. The council of the ABA’s Legal Ed Section, a separate and independent entity from the ABA, faces pressures from a couple of different directions, as the five-year review of its accreditation status by the Department of Education comes due just as its powers are questioned by individual states.
In April 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing Linda McMahon, the secretary of the Department of Education, to assess whether to suspend or terminate the council as the government’s official law school accreditor, citing its “unlawful ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ requirements” as part of an executive order focused on reforming higher education accreditation.
As part of the Education Department’s review process, Daniel Thies, the council’s immediate past chair, is scheduled to appear before the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, or the NACIQI, in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 23 and 24.
And since early this year, the state supreme courts of the Republican-leaning states of Alabama, Texas and Florida made moves to break ties with the council. Other state supreme courts, including Ohio, currently are reevaluating ABA accreditation.
Testy says the new group differs from the workgroup created by Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators in February, which will focus solely on accreditation.
But the new AALS group has a broader scope.
“As the learned society, we will apply a wide lens,” Testy says, and alternative legal providers, additional pathways to the bar, artificial intelligence use and online education will be examined.
The new group plans to release a fall 2026 briefing to help stakeholders develop a shared understanding of the current landscape, and a final report and recommendations later in the year, according to the press release.
It will also examine data on legal education with resources including the AccessLex Institute, the Law School Admission Council, the National Association for Law Placement and the National Conference of Bar Examiners, according to the press release.
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