DEI standard prompts Florida to reconsider ABA accreditation
Citing the ongoing controversy over diversity and inclusion in law school admissions, the Florida Supreme Court has created a workgroup to both reconsider its requirement that law students graduate from an ABA-accredited school to sit for the Florida bar exam and develop options for alternatives. (Illustration by Sara Wadford/ABA Journal/Shutterstock)
Citing the ongoing controversy over diversity and inclusion in law school admissions, the Florida Supreme Court has created a workgroup to both reconsider its requirement that law students graduate from an ABA-accredited school to sit for the Florida bar exam and develop options for alternatives.
“Reasonable questions have arisen about the ABA’s accreditation standards on racial and ethnic diversity in law schools and about the ABA’s active political engagement,” according to a release on the state supreme court’s website. The working group is required to submit a report by Sept. 30, according to the order signed Wednesday by Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz.
“We welcome the opportunity to discuss the many ways that our accreditation of law schools promotes the court’s and the council’s common goals of providing excellent cost-effective legal education; producing effective, ethical and responsible lawyers; and protecting the public,” Jennifer Rosato Perea, the ABA managing director of accreditation and legal education, wrote to the ABA Journal.
Florida’s move comes as the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar mulls how to adjust a suspended accreditation standard focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. That followed the White House executive order to dismantle DEI efforts or risk retribution, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision that eliminated race-conscious admissions.
Since then, there has been a lengthy and deep look at Standard 206—which has been renamed “Access to Legal Education and the Profession” in recent proposals—to determine exactly what the ruling means for law school admissions and hiring.
Some states allow candidates to take the bar exam or pursue other licensing paths without graduating from an ABA-accredited law school. Graduates of law schools not accredited by the ABA do not fare as well on the California bar exam, according to State Bar of California statistics.
“If Florida pursues this path, it may be creating a trap for students: They will pay a lot for a legal education and won’t be able to pass the bar exam,” says Deborah Jones Merritt, professor emerita at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law who serves as a consultant to several state bars considering bar exam reform.
But Sean Silverman, owner of Silverman Bar Exam & LSAT Tutoring, says he doesn’t “think that allowing students from non-ABA schools to take the bar exam is misguided. But there’s a bit of irony in the Florida Bar considering greater inclusion in that respect while pushing back at an inclusive philosophy of the ABA.”
In February, the section council moved to suspend enforcement of Standard 206—which is officially still titled “Diversity and Inclusion”—until Aug. 31 as it reconsiders its wording. No action is planned before its May meeting, and a new draft could be presented to the ABA House of Delegates at the ABA Annual Meeting in August.
But U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi wants the council to go further—and now. Last month, she wrote the council and stated it needs to “immediately” abolish the standard or risk the right to accredit law schools.
On March 10, David A. Brennen, chair of the council, sent a letter to Bondi. “The council has not and will not require a law school to violate the law in order to comply with its accreditation standards,” he wrote. “Recognition as a [Department of Education] accreditor is a privilege and a great responsibility, which we take seriously to help ensure that graduates from accredited law schools are prepared to be effective ethical and responsible members of the legal profession.”
Bondi’s letter follows a Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague” letter from Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education, which ordered the elimination of “racial preferences” in admissions, hiring and other areas by the end of February.
The Florida Bar declined to comment, and a spokesman for the Florida Supreme Court wrote to the ABA Journal that the release and administrative order “do speak for themselves.”
There are 12 ABA-accredited law schools in Florida, and the state tests the fourth-largest number of bar candidates each year, according to the National Conference of Board Examiners. In December, Florida’s bar eliminated DEI language from its organizational policy after the state supreme court mandated the bar stop funding diversity and inclusion initiatives.
See also:
Florida Bar drops diversity and inclusion language from its internal policy
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