Texas' chief justice-elect wants to bring back ABA accreditation
The “blue wave” that rolled across the country after last week’s midterm elections might lead one state to reinstate the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar as its law school accreditor.
Four Democrats—including Maggie Ellis, Texas’ state chief justice-elect—were voted in to the state’s top court last week, replacing four Republicans. Ellis told Bloomberg Law on Thursday she wants to revisit the state’s move away from the only national accreditor of law schools. No new approach to accrediting law schools has been announced in Texas to date.
“My hope is that we’re able to each share ideas, and the new supreme court can look at it,” Ellis said.
Texas tests the third-largest number of bar candidates, according to National Conference of Bar Examiners statistics.
Before Texas’ January move away from the ABA, eight of the state’s law school deans and leaders of law school associations supported keeping the council as its accreditor.
Carla Pratt. (Photo courtesy of the University of Oklahoma)“The council is heartened by the possibility of being able to again serve as a recognized accreditor in Texas, in the interests of students, graduates and the public,” Carla Pratt, chair of the legal education council, told the ABA Journal.
A separate and independent entity from the ABA, the council is recognized by the Department of Education as the sole accrediting body for U.S. law schools and had served as Texas’ sole accreditor since 1983. There are 10 ABA-approved law schools in Texas.
In January, with the blessing of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the Republican Texas Supreme Court cut ties with the council, largely in protest over the ABA’s now-repealed diversity, equity and inclusion standard.
Several other Republican-leaning state supreme courts made similar moves, with Florida, like Texas, killing its reliance on the council’s accreditation while the Alabama Supreme Court voted to eliminate graduation from an ABA-accredited law school as a requirement to take the state’s bar exam.
The council is currently in the midst of a five-year review by the U.S. Department of Education.
After a contentious hearing in September, the Education Department’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity voted not to make a recommendation regarding the accreditor status of the council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
A decision by Education Department Under Secretary Nicholas Kent about the council’s status as the sole recognized national accreditor for law schools is expected by year’s end.
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. There are 198 ABA-accredited law schools.
“We are committed to cooperating with Texas and other state supreme courts to ensure that degree portability is assured throughout the states, and law school graduates are prepared to serve the public competently and ethically,” Pratt added.
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