KYLE MCENTEE: What Will The ABA Do To Restore Trust In Law Schools?

On Friday, the Council for ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar meets in Atlanta. My organization will ask the Council to address trends in law school admissions and retention policies. We already asked the Council to instruct the Accreditation Committee to enforce the non-exploitation standard based on the plain text of Standard 501(b). Now we are asking that the Council reignite the Standard 316 revision process.

At the Standards Review Committee‘s last meeting, the committee indicated that it will wait on the Council for further instructions on the minimum bar passage standard, Standard 316. The Council should instruct the SRC to submit a revised Standard 316 after its February meeting. After the Council’s March meeting it should put the revised Standard out for notice and comment so that it may approve it during the June 2016 meeting. If the ABA starts the process now, we can easily have a real bar passage standard by August 2016.

But what’s wrong with Standard 316?

Standard 316 requires schools to pass one of two tests. A school passes the first test with an “ultimate bar passage rate” of 75% over the last five years. A school passes the second test with a “first-time bar passage rate” that is within 15% of the state average.

The tests sound simple, but are riddled with loopholes that allow very low performing law schools to remain in compliance. More than a handful of current and former ABA Section of Legal Education insiders have remarked privately that the Standard is unenforceable.

It’s as if self-regulation is usually self-serving or something.