Law schools at the University of the District of Columbia and Texas Southern University were cleared by the American Bar Association as compliant with association standards on bar passage rates and admissions standards during the ABA’s annual meetings held last month.
Officials at the UDC David Clarke School of Law say that the university’s last two cohorts of graduates to sit for the national bar exam have or are likely to surpass the 75% threshold for compliance with ABA credentialing standards. The school was cited in May for only 64% of graduates from its 2017 cohort passing the exam within two years of earning their law degrees. From the ABA Journal:
“UDC Law is very pleased by the council’s finding,” said UDC Law Dean Renée McDonald Hutchins. “As one of six HBCU law schools—a school founded on principles of social justice and diversification of the profession—we take seriously our obligation to provide students with a quality education that will enable them to pass the bar exam,” Hutchins told the Journal in an email.
Texas Southern’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law was also deemed to be in compliance with admission standards following public censure in May. The citation followed an investigation into a former assistant dean accepting payments in exchange for admission to the school, which also resulted in the controversial removal of former TSU President Austin Lane.
“I believe in the law school’s mission. I am excited about the future of the law school now that this challenge has been overcome,” Joan R. M. Bullock, the law school’s dean, told the ABA Journal in an email.
