Welp. They’ve done did it. The Texas Supreme Court has officially ended its overt reliance on the ABA to accredit its law schools. From now on (or until they outsource the responsibility onto someone else), the Lone Star State’s Supreme Court will call the shots on which law schools are qualified to crank out its future lawyers. Bloomberg Law has coverage:
In the Jan. 6 order, the Texas Supreme Court noted that it intends to ensure that law degrees from schools in Texas are portable to other states, and vice-versa. It also doesn’t plan to impose any additional burdens on law school accreditation, it said.
The court said it would consider returning to a multi-state accreditation entity that isn’t the ABA “should a suitable entity become available.”
While it is nice to know that the state’s supreme court plans to do something about degree portability, they could have come with more than concepts of a plan — portability is literally the biggest issue with breaking off from the ABA. Perhaps Florida and Tennessee will wait to see if Texas successfully irons out the quirks before they sever ties with the ABA.
Further, I can’t wait to see what Texas’s cert qualifications look like once they’re standing on their own two feet. For now, the schools that are already on the court’s good side just need to stay in compliance with ABA standards 316, 502(a)-(c), 503, and 509 to maintain approval. Is this a hint of what “ending reliance on the ABA” means? Copy and pasting existent ABA standards and deleting the parts about women and other minorities not being included? Just reads like a short-lived accreditation version of Bender’s theme park. The only other notable change is that the Supreme Court stated that the ABA no longer accrediting a law school does not necessarily mean that the school wouldn’t be in good favor with the Court. That is a nice buffer of safety for Texan lawyers practicing in Texas, but remind me, how does that square with the promise of portability again?
Good luck to the Texas Supreme Court and all of the students struggling to learn RAP at Texas law schools. And if things ever get rough, just remember — it probably would have been easier if you just let the ABA do its job.
Texas Supreme Court Takes Over Law School Accreditation From ABA [Bloomberg Law]
Earlier: Texas Plans To Cut Law School Accreditation Ties With The ABA
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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