As you go off for Spring Break, let me share more widely the good news that I shared at recent Dean’s Forums.  The bar passage rates of Whittier Law School graduates satisfy the new, recently-adopted rule of the ABA!

As you may remember from past Forums and letters, in 2005 and since, we said to the ABA and to the Department of Education that the ABA was holding the Law School to a rule that was never made known to us and to the public and that was never approved by the pertinent ABA committees and its House of Delegates.  As a result of our position, in early 2007, the Secretary of Education ordered the ABA to formulate a rule, adopt it through its committees, and submit it to the House of Delegates.  The ABA finished that process on February 11, 2008.

Because our bar passage rates in 2003-07, the pertinent five-year period under the new rule, are well in compliance, we have requested to be removed from probation.  The ABA Accreditation Committee will consider that request on April 17-19, and the ABA Council will review the Accreditation Committee’s recommendation on June 6-8.  I expect that after those meetings, the ABA will remove the Law School’s probationary status.

During this whole period, we have been a fully-accredited school.  During this whole period, in the view of the 2006 ABA Site Inspection report, our educational offerings – doctrinal classroom, legal skills, academic support, clinics, and externships -- met and exceeded the Standards of the ABA.  Had the ABA promulgated its current rule years ago, when we asked to be informed of the rule, we would have been in compliance with the bar passage standard at that time and during the whole period!

We are enthused about losing the asterisk we never deserved.  Our Law School Community Planning Group is ready to begin its work next week. We are all ready to move on, strengthen the Law School further, and achieve the goals and recognition that our students and graduates deserve.

Best Wishes

Neil H. Cogan