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ABA Accredited Law Schools
The
American Bar Association is a voluntary association of lawyers and law
students which provides accreditation to law schools that apply for
provisional approval. A law school however needs to be in operation for
one year before applying for provisional approval. Once a school has
been granted provisional approval, it remains in provisional status for
a minimum of three years before being granted full approval. After
being awarded full approval, the ABA carries out a full site evaluation
in the third year, and then a full sabbatical site evaluation once in
seven years. A fully ABA-approved law school remains on the list of
approved law schools until it is removed by a desicion of the Council
or until it closes.
A law school may not
establish a degree program in addition to its J.D. program unless the
school is fully approved and has obtained the Council's prior
acquiescence. Click the link to view The ABA Standards and Rules for Approval of
Law Schools.
In almost all U.S.
states, graduation from an ABA-accredited law school is a prerequisite
for being allowed to sit for the bar exam. Therefore it is extremely
important that law students graduate from an ABA-accredited law school.
As of June 2008 , a total of 200 institutions were in the ABA-approved
list. 199 of these law schools confer the J.D. degree. The U.S. Army
Judge Advocate General's School is the other ABA approved school which
offers an officer's resident graduate course, a specialized program
beyond the J.D. degree in law. Nine of these 200 law schools are
provisionally approved.
Prospective law
students can rest assured that law schools which are ABA-approved would
provide a legal education that meets a minimum set of standards laid
down by the ABA. These ABA Standards assure that students who attend
ABA-approved law schools will receive a sound program of legal
education. Schools that are not approved by the ABA may or may not
conform to these standards.
The criteria for
eligibility to sit for the bar examination or to otherwise qualify for
bar admission are set by each state, and not by the ABA. Students and
applicants to law schools should always check with the bar admissions
authority in their state concerning their eligibility to take the bar
exam. Information on each state's rules about the legal education that
students must obtain in order to sit for that state's bar exam and a
directory of state bar admission agencies can be found in The Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission
Requirements.
Below is the list of
ABA Accredited Law Schools (as of June 2008):
http://www.abanet.org/legaled/approvedlawschools/alpha.html
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