Top judicial officials form workgroup studying law school accreditation
As the path forward for law school accreditation is reconsidered in several states, a group of chief justices and court administrators launched a workgroup this week to dig deep into accreditation, including the role of the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
The group of the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators was created seven months after the Committee on Legal Education and Admissions Reform’s 2025 report, which recommends “law school accreditation that serves the public” and proposed the creation of this workgroup.
“As the primary regulators of the legal profession in their respective jurisdictions, state supreme courts must be at the table for the ongoing public discussion on the future of law school accreditation,” said New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon J. MacDonald in a statement. He is also a 2026 ABA Journal Legal Rebel and the chair of the Committee on Legal Education and Admissions Reform.
And it comes a month after the Texas Supreme Court cut ties with the ABA council, a separate and independent entity from the ABA that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the sole accrediting body for domestic law schools.
Leaders in Florida are pushing to follow suit, and two other states are considering similar moves.
New Mexico Supreme Court Justice C. Shannon Bacon, the vice chair of CLEAR, will lead the accreditation group that will offer a draft report of findings and recommendations to the overall CLEAR committee by the end of the year, according to a press release.
“This working group will bring a big tent approach to understanding the current challenges to, and the future of, law school accreditation,” Bacon said in the press release. “Our objective is to collect a diversity of viewpoints, so CLEAR can offer practical, concrete recommendations.”
CLEAR’s goal is to “assess how legal education and licensure practices and processes can address the justice gap crisis and ensure public trust and confidence in the legal profession,” according to the press release.
“We’re pleased to see that CLEAR is continuing its work to ensure that state supreme court justices, as the regulators of the profession, will continue to provide their perspectives related to legal education and admissions to the bar—including accreditation,” said Jennifer L. Rosato Pere, the managing director for accreditation and legal education at the ABA, in a statement provided to the Journal.
See also:
ABA Legal Ed council will consider including alternative pathways to bar in accreditation standards
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