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Accreditation

Accreditation

The Dean is fully informed as to the Standards and Rules of Procedure for the Approval of Law Schools by the American Bar Association (ABA). The Administration and the Dean are determined to devote all necessary resources and in other respects to take all necessary steps to present a program of legal education that will qualify for approval by the American Bar Association. The Law School makes no representation to any applicant that it will be approved by the American Bar Association prior to the graduation of any matriculating student.

Accreditation Plan
The American Bar Association is the accrediting agency for law schools recognized by the U. S. Department of Education and by every state Supreme Court or Board of Bar Examiners.  The ABA process for accrediting law schools is described in the “ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools” and summarized here:  http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publications/misc/legal_education/2010_aba_accreditation_brochure.authcheckdam.pdf

Although the Savannah Law School (SLS) is a branch of a fully-approved law school, Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar must separately accredit SLS.

Essentially, there is a two-step process for accrediting a branch campus:

• First, the ABA must acquiesce in the opening of any branch campus as it did for SLS on Dec. 5, 2011. An ABA fact finder then visits the campus in the first semester of operation to report back to the ABA on the school’s opening and on-going activities. SLS’s fact finder visited November 8th and 9th, 2012.
• Second, the school must apply for approval (accreditation) by the ABA . Normally, a new, non-branch, law school applies for provisional approval followed 3-5 years later by an application for full approval. However, for branch campuses like SLS, the two steps may be collapsed into one application process. SLS will apply for approval (both provisional and full) during the first year of operation and the ABA site inspection is scheduled for October 27-30, 2013.

All policies, procedures, and curriculum of the fully-approved Atlanta campus will govern the operation of the Savannah campus.  The same Board of Directors, Dean and administrative team who operate the fully-approved Atlanta campus will operate the Savannah campus.  While the two campuses will have separate faculties, the qualifications and experience of the professors on both campuses are equally impressive.  Substantial financial resources are dedicated to support the Savannah campus law library, student services, facilities and extra-curricular activities.

For more information about the accreditation process, please contact the Rose Anne Nespica, Associate Dean of the SLS campus at rnespica@savannahlawschool.org.

The ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is located at 321 N. Clark Street, 21st Floor Chicago, IL 60654 and can be reached by phone at 312.988.6738; by fax at 312.988.5681; or by  email at legaled@americanbar.org