Keller wrote in an email to Above the Law that the law school continues to pursue its ABA appeal, and she said a small number of Thomas Jefferson students take the bar exam in other states. Graduates of the San Diego Institution also struggle to pass the bar exam and get legal jobs. For example, only 25 percent of the school`s new applicants passed the California Bar exam in July 2018, the lowest percentage among the state`s 21 ABA-accredited schools. The Thomas Jefferson School of Law has until July 10 to appeal the decision to a council appeals committee. The withdrawal of accreditation will not take effect until that time or, if an appeal is filed, until the committee renders its decision. The school must submit a plan to end classes, but this requirement will be delayed if it appeals. With respect to Thomas Jefferson, the ABA issued a notice stating that an appeals committee had upheld the earlier decision to withdraw accreditation and that the move would take effect Dec. 17, the day after the school`s fall semester finals. „As it has done for the past fifty years, the Faculty of Law will continue to play an important role in ensuring that students from diverse communities have the opportunity to join the legal profession, serve individuals and communities in need, and pursue rewarding and satisfying careers,” the school said. „We are proud of our talented and passionate students, and equally proud of our graduates and their work.” The number of schools that no longer have ABA accreditation – whether due to a merger, closure or ABA stock in the last three years – is now eight. Western State does not enroll new students while trying to complete its sale to Westcliff, and the school has not applied for accreditation from the California State Bar. The biggest benefit of ABA accreditation for law schools is that their graduates are eligible to take the bar exam nationally, while graduates of state-accredited schools must meet additional requirements to take licensing exams outside of California.
The law school will only admit new female students to its Young Women program, which is accredited by the California State Bar Committee of Bar Examiners for the fall 2020 semester, with an optional early start in the summer of 2020. For more information about this option, see www.tjsl.edu/admissions/jd-admissions. The Thomas Jefferson School of Law is a former ABA-accredited law school in San Diego, known for having one of the lowest money flow rates and the highest average student debt in the country. They are now accredited only with the California Bar Association and made headlines a few years ago when a former student sued her for fraudulent admissions practices because she couldn`t find a stint at the bar that required a job, even though she graduated with honors and passed the bar the first time. She lost the case because the court ruled that she should have known better than leaving, but it made waves in the media. It was the Thomas Jefferson School of Law that was involuntarily withdrawn. The private, self-governing school had lost its ABA accreditation in May for a number of reasons — including the bar`s low throughput rates — but has appealed that decision. Recently, she lost her appeal, ending any hope of remaining under the aegis of the ABA. But California allows schools to obtain state bar accreditation, and the state also allows unaccredited schools to register with the bar. „When a school loses accreditation, the next step is usually what is called teaching,” Keller wrote in the Sept. 26 email.
„It`s a way for a school to ensure that its current students can complete their studies and graduate. Teaching agreements recently approved by the ABA for other schools have provided for the law school to maintain its ABA accreditation while teaching its current students. Therefore, these teacher students graduate from an ABA-recognized law school and can take the bar exam in other jurisdictions. Under the teaching agreement, which was posted Jan. 8 on the Legal Department`s website, Thomas Jefferson`s ABA accreditation will cover current and temporary law students. If the law school loses its state license or fails to meet the obligations listed in the instructional plan, the board retains its authority to revoke ABA accreditation before the end of the spring semester 2023. The school is not accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) after the ABA revoked its license in December 2019. [5] [6] However, it is approved by the Board of Examiners of the California State Bar. [7] As a result, as of 2019, graduates are generally unable to adopt the bar or practice outside of California. The strange thing is that the university at large is actually highly respected there, unlike TJSL, which is an independent law school with serious problems called the Thomas Jefferson School of Law (TJSL) is a private law school in San Diego, California. It offers a Juris Doctor and three LLM programs, including one that is exclusively online,[4] as well as a combined J.D./M.B.A. with San Diego State University.
In hopes of avoiding the loss of its ABA accreditation, the school has reduced the number of Young Women students admitted in order to be more selective in its decisions. In October, the University of La Verne Board of Trustees announced it was considering several options for the law school, including its closure. One of the concerns was that we would be able to achieve the new ABA results in the passage of the Bar. While a number of law schools have been closed as a result of ABA penalties, Thomas Jefferson will not. The school`s statement says the school will accept „new female students for a young woman`s degree as a law school recognized by the California State Bar” at the start of the 2020 academic year. „The ABA accreditation process provides significant opportunities for a law school to determine that it is operating in accordance with accreditation standards,” Currier said. If the board concludes that a law school does not meet a standard, the school has time to act and show that it is compliant again. If a school fails to demonstrate compliance, the board follows an established process that may result in sanctions such as probation or revocation of approval. In 2018, 31 Thomas Jefferson graduates took the bar exam for the first time in 18 jurisdictions outside of California, according to a report the school filed with the ABA.