As the season of academic rush approaches, those considering law as a career are confronted with common concerns. While the syllabuses and courses are being investigated, the minute details of determining the accreditation of foreign institutes are frequently overlooked, which is mostly indicative of the value and recognition of the courses and employability. So, this is to alleviate the burden on those who are starting just after finishing school or graduating. In this article we shall sew if the University of La Verne Law School is accredited?
About the College
The University of La Verne, a pioneer in adult education, was established in 1891 as a non-profit private university in La Verne, California which is about 35 miles east of Los Angeles. The university believes in providing a high-quality and values-based education that enables improvement in the human conditions while encouraging community service, scholarly achievement, and professionalism.
The university has to offer more than 50 undergraduate programmes, over 20 master’s degrees, five doctorates, and six credential programmes available at its regional campuses: College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business and Public Management, La Fetra College of Education, College of Health and Community Well-Being, and College of Law, as well as eight regional campuses.
La Verne College of Law
The mission of La Verne Law School is to lead to a robust and at the same time an engaging study, debate, and discussion prone student body and faculty. While also aiming to incorporate the rich Southern California diversity that represents and nurtures various perspectives. The college’s goal is to provide the students an apparatus to have them discover the law and themselves.
The curriculum design emphasises experiential learning in the development of knowledge and skills relevant to the real world and also pertinent for launching a career in the legal profession anywhere: private practice, public service, business, government, or on the bench, only to find success.
The candidates can also apply for the College of Law Juris Doctor (JD) programme which is available with full-time and part-time options, both.
How diverse is the academic environment at La Verne’s?
In 2011, the College of Law had received a B+ rating for having a 30 percent student population of blacks, Latinos, and Asians (also, a 33 per cent faculty population of the same ethnicities), by the National Jurist.
In 2015, the pre-Law magazine its winter issue gave the College of Law an A+ rating and ranked it third on the Diversity list of Best Law Schools. The University of La Verne became the only Law school in the Top 10 to have A+ rating from California.
As of today, the La Verne Law School ranks among the top 5% of law schools for female enrolment. The pre-Law magazine has named it to be among the one of the Best Schools for African Americans and for Hispanics, both.
The November Crisis
Back on November 18, 2019, the University of La Verne’s Board of Trustees decided to discontinue La Verne Law School’s American Bar Association (ABA)–accredited legal education courses. The Trustees Board instructed the administration to transition to a high-quality legal education programme in order with the State Bar of California accreditation and its approved education system.
So, the University of La Verne College of Law gave up its American Bar Association accreditation and instead took the California State Bar Accreditation.
However, it was only in March 2016 that La Verne Law School received full ABA accreditation.
The reason for this transition is the persistent low passage rate as only 34% of La Verne’s first-time test takers could pass the July 2018 California exam.
Meanwhile, a new and approved stricter ABA bar passage standard made it more difficult for schools like La Verne to comply.
The schools now have to ensure that 75 per cent of their graduates take the bar exam within two years of graduation, rather than the previous five years.
The Officials at La Verne have admitted that the ABA bar passage standard was the impetus for an internal review. A lot of deliberations were made to determine whether continuing with the ABA-accredited law programme. While also objectively scrutinising its financial viability as well as checking on its alignment with the university’s mission and values.
The La Verne board after much consideration of the recommendations of the law school’s administration and faculty decided to abandon its Law School’s ABA accreditation, only to pursue state accreditation.
The interesting fact is, La Verne’s Law School was previously state-accredited before receiving ABA approval.
Is La Verne’s Law School Accredited?
The most common concern that any student has is whether or not the college or school to which they are applying is accredited. The credit information and schema? The propensity for anxious detail seeking is common. Let’s ascertain.
The Law School of La Verne University is approved and also accredited by the California Committee of Bar Examiners for the State Bar of California.
Any interested candidate can check The California Accreditation Rule and Standards available on the California State Bar website.
Admissions
The college allows candidates to take admission as full-time or part-time students in the fall semester.
The Part-time students can have their classes started at La Verne Law School in the spring semester. These students, after completing the spring semester and the summer session, can apply to the College of Law to become full-time JD students for the fall semester.
At La Verne’s, it is believed that Law school is beyond the normal practice of law in classrooms with legal briefs. So, the La Verne Law College opts to have smaller class sizes with personal advising and student support services. As this arrangement allows students to thoroughly explore their interests and enable them to discover the most successful legal career trajectory.
The College of Law accepts and reviews applications until the first day of classes.
If the interested candidates submit their complete-application by the following dates they will be given priority:
· Summer: 31st July (for classes starting in August)
· Spring: 1st December (for classes starting in January)
Conclusion
As it has been determined that La Verne’s law school is fully accredited, and as the summer admissions process approaches, all those interested must buckle up and catch up on the syllabus. As it is always advantageous to prepare and perform aptly.
