The AALS yesterday sent this remarkable 10-page letter to the ABA opposing the Standards Review Committee’s proposed changes to the ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools. Here is the blistering conclusion:
Those who seek to alter the fundamental assumptions underlying accreditation and its role in the system of legal education should bear the burden of justifying that need to the legal education community and all those who rely on the high quality of American legal education.
We therefore ask the Council and the Standards Review Committee to take the following actions:
- Reject the radical proposed changes to the role of faculty, and other changes to the standards that would weaken, rather than strengthen, legal education.
- Initiate a process for the specific purpose of allowing all important constituencies to understand and debate the vision animating the current proposals and their combined effect on legal education.
- Undertake or commission an independent, fact-based study of the actual cost drivers in legal education, and their relationship with the accreditation process.
- National Law Journal, AALS Urges Delay in Debate Over Law School Accreditation Standards
