Stakes Are High for Chapman Law Students

You wonder what it would be like to have casino gambling?

Ask the law students at Chapman University. Right now, they have a huge stack of chips sitting in the middle of the table while they examine their cards and try to decide whether to keep playing or throw in.

These people must be cooler than any Texan named “Slim” who ever sat down at a seven-card stud table in Las Vegas. Nerves of steel. One thing we can say about this Chapman class--if they ever get to practice law, no judge will make them nervous.

From the start, these students have been gamblers. Now midway through its second year, the school came into being on the shoulders of Chapman’s solid reputation and the certainty that well-heeled alums like local millionaire George Argyros were never more than a phone call away. But as a fledgling school, it wasn’t accredited and Chapman officials decided right away to eschew seeking state accreditation and went after the big enchilada, ABA accreditation. Schools with national accreditation automatically qualify for state accreditation.

So, the students came, some 200 for the first semester in 1995. Those carrying a full first-year load brought more than $17,000 with them and laid it on the table. Second-year students carrying a full load plopped down $18,000 more this year.

Those students now are $35,000 in the hole. Last week, many of them may have gulped when the ABA denied accreditation to the school. It’s only the first rejection, and an appeal is in the works. If that fails, a renewed application will be in the mail for next year.

Still, no student likes to have $35,000 invested and still be attending an unaccredited law school. Second-year student Linda Norcross of Dana Point said students are wary.

“We were told we would get accreditation,” she said this week. “We were told they [the Chapman administration] couldn’t guarantee it, but that we would get it.”

She believes students still have faith in the school, but she is miffed that Law School Dean Jeremy Miller revealed that only 14% of Chapman students passed the “Baby Bar” exam required by the California Bar Assn. for first-year students of law schools that aren’t accredited. Without passing the Baby Bar--and assuming that Chapman isn’t ABA-accredited by the time Norcross’ class graduates--a Chapman law school graduate wouldn’t be eligible to practice anywhere.

That is the worst-case scenario and one that no one wants to contemplate. But neither is it the kind of recruiting picture a new law school wants to present.

What, me worry, Miller seemed to be saying. “I think we had a near-miss [with ABA accreditation],” he said. “We get two bites of the apple--and a school which is devoting the resources which we’re devoting almost always gets it within those two bites. It’s my belief we’re going to be ABA-approved before anyone graduates.”

In the meantime, the school will seek state accreditation, which poses a less rigorous test.

As gently as I could, I suggested that the ABA rejection came at a bad time for Chapman, considering that Whittier College, which already has ABA accreditation, is moving to Orange County and may lure Chapman students wondering about their post-graduate employment.

Again, not to worry, Miller said. “At the moment, I’d be lying if I said I wished we weren’t the only law school within a thousand miles, but ultimately, it will be a synergistic thing. It won’t be a nasty rivalry.”

In the meantime, to steady the nerves at Chapman, Miller said the school would beef up scholarship offers. “Defeat is a state of mind,” he said. “I don’t feel defeated. Of course, it [ABA rejection] is a setback, but I’m honestly proud of what we’ve accomplished. But we do need the imprimatur of approval from the ABA.”

It’s the students, of course, who are stuck with most of the risk at the moment. Perhaps that’s why Norcross is steamed that Miller revealed the school’s low success rate with the Baby Bar. She says Miller shouldn’t have released the figure and should consider stepping down for not supporting the students.

A number of students also want Miller to release the ABA’s reasons for denying accreditation, but Miller said legal counsel has advised him against that. “But in answer to the question you haven’t asked, ‘Do I have anything to hide?’ absolutely not,” Miller said. “There’s no smoking gun. I absolutely feel it was a near-miss.”

With plenty of cards left to be played, the game isn’t close to over. But you get the sense that people are sweating a tad. “You’re into the house for so much money, you can’t quit playing,” Norcross said.

That makes me jumpy. Some of my worst poker nights occurred when I thought like that.