Los Angeles. (Photo: iStock)

The University of La Verne will keep its law school open, but as a California-accredited campus instead of one blessed by the American Bar Association.

The university's board of trustees Monday voted to convert the law school from ABA accreditation to accreditation by the State Bar of California—a move that will make it easier for the Ontario, California, campus to meet program standards. But it will also mean that graduates are only eligible to take the bar exam in California, at least initially. About 240 students are enrolled at the school.

Under the new plan, La Verne would become the first law school to drop its ABA accreditation in the wake of that body adopting tougher bar exam standards. The ABA in 2018 changed that standard, giving law schools two years instead of five years to ensure that at least 75% of their graduates pass the licensing exam.

That heightened standard was one factor that prompted the board of trustees last month to order a full-scale review of the La Verne's law school and its sustainability. The school's long-term finances were another catalyst for the review, officials said.

"The California bar standards are lower for bar pass rates than what the ABA is, but I think the board still has high expectations for how the school will perform and student success," said university spokesman Rod Leveque in an interview Thursday. "There probably was a path forward for the college of law in which it could have put a lot of dollars into the ABA program and get it to the point where it could meet the new ABA standard, but at what cost? What would we have to sacrifice in terms of mission and in terms of financial obligations?"

Should La Verne successfully convert to California accreditation, it would become the seventh school to disappear from the ranks of ABA-accredited campuses since 2015. (That figure includes the 2015 merger of William Mitchell College of Law and Hamline University School of Law.) And it would be the second law school in Southern California to leave the ABA roles. Whittier Law School, about 40 miles to the south in Costa Mesa, is in its final year of operation. University officials in 2017 decided to shut the school down amid falling enrollment and financial shortfalls.

La Verne's board of trustees in October voted to form two committees to investigate the law school's prospects—one composed of faculty and the other of administrators—to issue recommendations. Neither committee recommended closing the law school, but committee members offered a wide array of views on what should happen with the law school, Leveque said.

Not counting the soon-to-close Whittier, California is home to 20 ABA-accredited law schools. (Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego had its ABA-accreditation revoked in June, but it remains accredited while it appeals that decision.) Meanwhile, 21 other law schools are accredited by the State Bar of California.

Graduates of California-accredited law schools tend not to perform as well on the state's bar exam. Graduates of ABA-accredited law schools had a 71% first-time pass rate on the July 2019 exam. That figure was 26% for graduates of California-accredited schools. Graduates of California-accredited law schools are eligible to sit for the bar in 19 other jurisdictions, but in most cases they must first pass the California exam then practice for a certain number of years before taking the exam elsewhere.

The bar exam has long been a sticking point for La Verne's law school, which opened in 1970 but did not seek ABA accreditation until 1996. It took 17 years for the school to gain full ABA accreditation, largely due to its poor bar exam results. Just 32% of its graduates who took the licensing exam in 2018 passed. The school first gained provisional accreditation in 2006, but that status lapsed in 2011 after the ABA declined to extend full accreditation, citing low bar-passage rates. The ABA reinstated the school's provisional status the following year in time for graduates to be eligible to sit for the bar exam, and the school gained full accreditation in 2016.

La Verne president Devorah Lieberman said in an announcement of the decision that seeking California accreditation "returns the college to its roots."

The board of trustees has requested a transition plan by Dec. 16. All current La Verne law students will graduate with a degree from an ABA-accredited law school. But plans call for a phase in under which new students would start the California-accredited program, perhaps as early as next fall, Leveque said.

Reaction to the decision to seek accreditation from the State Bar of California has run the gamut, according to Leveque.

"Obviously, people are concerned," he said. "Anytime there is change there can be anxiety. But we have tried to engage the faculty and students in the process and make sure they know what's going on."