Archive for the ‘Accreditation’ Category
Timeline of Binghamton University Law School Uncertain
After a feasibility study and an external evaluation, Binghamton University is one step closer to having a law school affiliated with the institution.
“We are waiting for a written report from the external evaluators,” said Mary Ann Swain, provost and vice president for academic affairs at BU. “Both the State University of New York system administration and State Department of Education require this external evaluation.”
According to Swain, once this written report is received, it will be included with a formal proposal and sent to the system administration and Department of Education.
“Reviewers have not given us an exact date [for when the written report will be complete], but we are hoping for later this month,” she said.
According to Gail Glover, spokeswoman for BU, in their exit interview, the evaluators indicated they support BU’s efforts in creating a law school.
There are many steps for approval that the law school must go through before it can become a part of the University.
“The law school was a big plan [since before 2000],” said James Van Voorst, vice president for administration at BU. “It’s not like somebody woke up one morning and went, ‘Hey, lets have a law school.’ We’ve had consultants in, we’ve looked at the need, we’ve looked at the program and budget from all different angles, and that’s the way we’ve worked it.”
Last year, the planning started as a campus-based initiative and was approved by the provost’s office and the campus administrators.
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Tags: Husson University Law School Renews Request for Bar Exam Access
Whether Husson University is able to accept students into its fledgling law school next fall as planned may depend on how creative the Maine Supreme Judicial Court is willing to be in dealing with how the school is accredited.
“The court has a window of opportunity to improve access to justice in northern and rural Maine,” Peter Murray of Portland told the court Tuesday on Husson’s behalf at a hearing held in the Penobscot Judicial Center.
Murray appeared before the justices to argue for Husson’s renewed request that its law school graduates be able to take the Maine Bar Exam. The court turned down a similar application last year. Husson maintains it has met many of the court’s previous concerns.
The court’s rules require that people who take the bar exam be graduates of a law school accredited by the American Bar Association or a similar entity or to have practiced law for a certain number of years in another state in which they have passed a bar exam.
The state’s only law school is the University of Maine School of Law in Portland. It is ABA-accredited. Officials at the Portland school have not taken a stand on Husson’s application.
Support Rolls in for New U-Mass Dartmouth Law School
Three Massachusetts delegates have written Gov. Deval Patrick to express their “enthusiastic support” for a proposed University of Massachusetts law school in Dartmouth.
“The creation of this law school will be another example of how this university strategically helps our region and Massachusetts expand learning opportunities,” Sen. John Kerry and Reps. Barney Frank and James McGovern wrote in the letter, dated Tuesday.
A month after UMass Dartmouth announced it wanted to absorb the Southern New England School of Law and form a UMass law school there, the proposal has received public backing from UMass President Jack Wilson and conditional support from Patrick, who said the proposal needed to first pass “financial tests.”
The plan needs a series of approvals, including from the UMass trustees next month and the state Board of Higher Education in February. The proposal calls for starting the first public law school in Massachusetts by next fall.
SNESL, which has offered itself as a donation to UMass, has for years “provided aspiring lawyers with affordable tuition and fees” and a flexible course schedule, the Democratic delegates said in their letter to Patrick. UMass Dartmouth has also become “a model higher education institution focused on regional economic development” by working with area industries, they said.
UMass Closer to Adding Law School
The University of Massachusetts announced Friday that it would accept the donation of the Southern New England School of Law in Dartmouth, creating the first public law program in Massachusetts.
In October, Southern New England School of Law trustees offered to donate the school to the University of Massachusetts, a gift estimated at $22.6 million. The law school has 235 students.
Reviews have been conducted by officials at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and at the University of Massachusetts system level and a proposal has been drafted by Dartmouth’s Chancellor Jean F. MacCormack.
The next step will be for that proposal to be considered by the University’s Committee on Academic and Student Affairs and its Committee on Administration and Finance, and the proposal is expected to go before the UMass Board of Trustees when the board meets on Dec 10. If approved by the Trustees a, the proposal would go to the state Board of Higher Education, which years ago voted against a proposal for the University of Massachusetts to absorb Southern New England School of Law and create a public law school.
[MSN]
Liberty University Law School Releases Bar Pass Rate – 70%(ish) Nationwide
Liberty University School of Law announced this week a 100 percent pass rate for students who have taken the bar exams in Tennessee, Florida, Missouri, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Mat Staver, dean of the School of Law, said Liberty’s national pass rate in 2008 was 92 percent, with 94.4 percent in Virginia. This year the Virginia pass rate is 57 percent, which makes the national pass rate thus far in the 70s, he said.
Staver said this rate still exceeds the typical performance for new schools. Most young schools begin in the 40s, then inch up to the 50s and 60s; a milestone for new schools is reaching the 70s.
Wilkes University Law School Planning Initiative Advisory Board Appoints New Members
Susan Schwab, Esq., Chair of the Wilkes University Law School Planning Initiative Advisory Board, recently announced the appointment of the following new members of the Advisory Board:
John P. Moses practices law in Wilkes-Barre with the firm of Cozen O’Conner. He is a graduate of King’s College and the Villanova University School of Law. He is former chair and president of the board of St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, and currently serves as board chair of Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania and as a board member of The Commonwealth Medical College.
Hon. Terrance R. Nealon was appointed to the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas in 1998. Prior to joining the bench, he practiced law and was certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy as a trial specialist. He is a graduate of the University of Scranton and the Dickinson School of Law.
Robert W. Munley is a graduate of the University of Scranton and Temple University School of Law. He was admitted to practice in Pennsylvania in 1959 following service in the Korean War. He founded the Scranton law firm Munley, Munley & Cartwright in 1959. He is past president of the Lackawanna Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, and is a Certified Civil Trial Attorney.
Thomas J. Foley, Jr. is founder and president of the Foley Law Firm. He is a graduate of the University of Scranton and Temple University School of Law. He is a former president of the Lackawanna Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association and has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
“The addition of John Moses to the Advisory Board represents another important step in ensuring that many of the most well-respected members of the Luzerne County bar are involved in the planning process of for the law school,” says Loren Prescott, Dean of the University’s law school initiative. “And, because this is a project intended to serve all of northeastern Pennsylvania, the addition of another member of the Lackawanna Court of Common Pleas, together with two senior members of the Lackawanna County bar, further the University’s interest in creating a program that meets the needs of the region.”
The inaugural class of 60 full-time students and 25 part-time students is expected to be seated in 2011. Once fully operational, the school will enroll 275 to 300 full-time students and 80 to 100 part-time students.
