- Posted September 21, 2011
- Tweet This | Share on Facebook
ABA responds to senator regarding legal education
The American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has responded to an Aug. 8th letter from U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) requesting information about law school accreditation and student lending. The section's detailed response, including an offer to meet with the senator at his convenience, is accompanied by a letter from ABA President Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III.
The response addresses Sen. Grassley's questions on the issues of law student loan default rates, scholarship retention and employment in the legal job market.
Regarding student loan default rates, the response notes that current ABA accreditation standards require law schools to "take reasonable steps to minimize student loan defaults, including provision of debt counseling at the inception of a student's loan obligations and prior to graduation."
The section will be considering in the near future a recommendation that law schools be required to publish scholarship retention rates.
With regard to the legal job market, the section describes current accreditation standards that take job placement information into account as a key measure of a law school's educational program, and also require that law schools provide career counseling services. Recently implemented changes to the section's annual questionnaire ask law schools for more detailed reporting of employment data, including types of employment, whether employment is long-term or short-term, whether the position is funded by the law school or associated university, and other additional data points.
Published: Wed, Sep 21, 2011
headlines Oakland County
- Associations gather for Spring Fling
- Law school’s team wins William and Mary Colonial Cup Competition
- Supreme Court makes it easier to sue for job discrimination over forced transfers
- Oakland County Physician bound over on insurance fraud charges
- Innocence Project leaders present at University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Spring Symposium
headlines National
- Incarceration series includes female inmates but doesn’t tell full story
- ACLU and BigLaw firm use ‘Orange is the New Black’ in hashtag effort to promote NY jail reform
- Former DOJ official who alleged election fraud violated at least one ethics rule, ethics committee says
- Winston & Strawn will provide reduced-cost legal services for routine tasks under Winston Legal Solutions umbrella
- Should Justice Sotomayor retire? Chemerinsky, White House haven’t joined calls for her to step down
- Which BigLaw firms are increasing lateral associate hiring the most? One made legal headlines last year