ABA Revokes Accreditation for Arizona Summit Law School
Arizona Summit Law School will soon be appearing in the obituaries section for law schools.
The school has been on life support for months, and the American Bar Association just pulled the plug on its accreditation. It's apparently the first ABA law school to have its accreditation revoked.
They can put that on its tombstone because this school is all but dead. Either that, or "We Told You So."
"We Told You So"
Where to begin the sad story of the "for-profit" law school? It started about a decade ago when InfiLaw took over Phoenix School of Law and renamed it Arizona Summit.
InfiLaw entered the market with three law schools -- Arizona Summit, Charlotte School of Law, and Florida Coastal School of Law. They promised to give everybody a chance, but what they really did was take everybody's money.
The Atlantic described it as the "law-school scam," as InfiLaw students found it easy to borrow money but hard to pass the bar exam and get jobs. Arizona fit the mold with bar pass rates dropping to less than 20 percent.
It got worse. Students sued the law school. The law school sued the ABA. The ABA, well, yeah.
Going Down Fast
To start the New Year, the ABA told Arizona Summit to explain its financial predicament. It apparently didn't have enough money to stay in business.
Don Lively, president of the law school, said they had completed a second round of fund-raising and were cutting costs. They were also addressing the ABA's concerns about substandard admissions and poor pass rates.
If InfiLaw's experience in Charlotte is an indication Arizona is taking its last breaths. Charlotte closed down last year.
Lively said the law school will appeal.
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- Greedy Tip of the Week: Be Greedy About Self-Care (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)