Following up on my previous posts (links below): ABA Journal, Golden Gate Law Students With Free Tuition Plan to Stay at the School Despite Concerns:
Lyndsey Glasgow was excited about receiving a full-ride scholarship to attend Golden Gate University School of Law. But the feeling was tempered when she went to the new-student orientation in August.
She found out there that the full-tuition scholarships were given to all full-time, in-person, first-year JD students. The school announced the scholarships in a September 2022 press release. Glasgow received individual notice of her award in March 2022. The law school’s first-year class had a total of 20 full-time students, according to its Standard 509 Information Report. …
Another surprise came in June 2023, when the San Francisco Standard reported that the law school’s future was at stake because the university could not continue to sustain its operating deficit. By that time, most law schools’ transfer application deadlines had passed. …
Glasgow and other Golden Gate Law students interviewed by the Journal say they plan to stay put.
Their tuition is free, and if the law school closes before they graduate, they are somewhat confident an ABA-approved teach-out plan will include schools that will accept them as transfer students, based on details from Rule 29, which covers teach-outs, in the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools.
Various accreditation issues are pending at Golden Gate Law. In February, the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar gave the law school an extension to come into compliance with Standard 316, which requires a two-year bar pass rate at or above 75%. The school has not met that benchmark since its class of 2017, according to ABA data.
Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:
- Struggling San Francisco Law School Slashes Class Size, Cancels Tuition (Sept. 30, 2022)
- ABA Gives Golden Gate Law School 3-Year Extension To Meet 75% Bar Passage Accreditation Standard (Mar. 30, 2023)
- Golden Gate University Law School Faces Bankruptcy, Closure (June 21, 2023)
- 122-Year Old Golden Gate Law School Will Keep Its Doors Open A Little Longer Despite Continued Financial Woes (June 26, 2023)
- Golden Gate Law School Won’t Close, But Faculty Layoffs May Be Coming (July 14, 2023)
- Golden Gate Law School Sends Discontinuation Notices To Tenured Faculty, Paving Way For Possible Termination In FY25 (July 17, 2023)
