Following up on my previous posts (links below): Karen Sloan (Law.com), Western State College of Law Locks Down New Owner, Averting Closure:
Back in the spring of 2019, it looked like Western State College of Law was toast.
The owner of the Orange County, California, law school—Argosy University—was placed under a federal receivership and the campus lost its eligibility for federal student loans. Western State looked to be on the path to closure, joining six other law schools that had shuttered since 2017.
But nearly two years later, Western State is still operating and is celebrating a milestone: the completion of its acquisition by Westcliff University. The for-profit Westcliff, based in Irvine, threw the battered law school a lifeline in May 2019 when it agreed to purchase Western State for $1. A federal judge overseeing the receivership signed off on the deal, but the transfer still required the blessing of accreditors. The American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar approved the school’s transfer to Westcliff University in November 2019.
Now, the future of Western State—now called Western State College of Law at Westcliff University—appears secure with the completion of that transfer. …
The now-averted closure of Western State would have been yet another blow for Southern California’s legal education market. Whittier Law School closed in July, while both the University of LaVerne College of Law and Thomas Jefferson School of Law opted to drop their ABA accreditation and instead become California-accredited schools. That conversion means that graduates can only sit for the bar exam in California.
Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:
- The Future Of Western State Is In Doubt As Law School Is Placed In Receivership And Students Cannot Access Federal Financial Aid (Feb. 27, 2019)
- ABA: Western State Law School Has Few Options As Its Parent University Is Placed In Receivership (Mar. 6, 2019)
- Western State Law Students Turn To Courts, GoFundMe As School ‘Teeters On The Edge Of Closure’ (Mar. 7, 2019)
- Western State May Be Sixth ABA-Accredited Law School To Close Since 2016 (March 23, 2019)
- Western State Submits Teach-Out Plan To ABA; Sixth Law School To Close Since 2016 (May 23, 2019)
- Receiver Seeks Court Approval Of Sale Of Western State Law School (July 28, 2019)
- Federal Court Approves Sale Of Western State Law School To Westcliff University (Aug. 11, 2019)
- Reflections On Elitism After The Closing Of A Clinic: Justice, Pedagogy And Scholarship (Sept. 26, 2019)
- ABA Approves Western State Law School Accreditation (Dec. 20, 2019)
