FTC supports end to ABA council's 'monopoly' as law school accreditor
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission endorsed ending the “monopoly” of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar as the country’s sole law school accreditor, citing “overly burdensome law school accreditation requirements” that raise prices and stifle attempts to offer “a differentiated, more affordable product.”
The statement came in a nine-page letter dated Dec. 1 to the Texas Supreme Court. In September, the state supreme court requested comments on its tentative approval to minimize or possibly eliminate the section’s accrediting powers, instead moving those powers to the court. That proposed rule change currently worded to “reduce or end” reliance on the ABA is expected to become effective Jan. 1, 2026.
“The proposed amendment is an important step in weakening the ABA’s enduring monopoly and resulting power to impose costly, overly burdensome law school accreditation requirements,” according to the FTC letter. “We commend the Texas Supreme Court for its initiative to disrupt the anticompetitive status quo and encourage other states to take similar steps.”
Like Texas, the state supreme courts of Florida, Tennessee and Ohio are currently reevaluating ABA accreditation.
In April, the Trump administration issued an executive order aimed at higher education accreditors—specifically referencing the council—mandating the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts or risk federal funding cuts.
The FTC’s letter echoes that order, citing “the ABA’s imposition of unlawful DEI requirements” for accreditation. Standard 206, which has been a lightning rod, has been suspended since Aug. 31, 2026, and the council discussed entirely eliminating the standard as it launched a comprehensive review of its standards at its quarterly meeting last month.
The council, a separate and independent entity from the ABA, is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the sole accrediting body for domestic law schools. The council has served as Texas’ sole accreditor since 1983. There are 10 ABA approved law schools in Texas.
Currently, most states require applicants to the bar to be graduates of an ABA-accredited law school, but that could change.
“The ABA should no longer have ‘the final say on whether a law school’s graduates are eligible to sit for the Texas bar exam,’” according to the FTC’s letter. “The ABA’s standards for accreditation appear to go far beyond what is reasonably necessary to assure adequate preparation for the practice of law.”
The letter states that the standards are “onerous,” preventing new law schools from opening and current schools from offering lower-cost programs, moves that ultimately discourage people from attending law school and, in turn, limits the number of attorneys who can provide legal aid to people with limited resources.
Some law school deans support the move away from the council, while others have pushed back against the attempt to stand up additional accreditors, concerned that portability of licenses would be more difficult.
“The standards enforced by the council allow law schools to innovate and serve different missions while ensuring students have portability of their law degrees, meaning they can sit for the bar wherever they choose to practice even if not in the state where they went to law school,” wrote Jennifer L. Rosato Perea, the managing director accreditation and legal education for the ABA, to the ABA Journal. “This national system of accreditation, overseen by the Department of Education, creates quality standards and practical efficiencies that state supreme courts can rely on in addition to other means they can take to regulate licensure in their states.”
The council also submitted a three-page letter to the Texas Supreme Court as part of its call for comments. In all, the court received 172 pages of comments.
Texas tested the third largest number of bar candidates for the July 2025 bar exam, according to statistics from the National Conference of Bar Examiners.
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