Setback for O.C. Law School

The legal education council of the American Bar Assn. has voted to strip Western State University College of Law of its provisional accreditation, a major setback in the Fullerton school’s years-long battle to gain ABA approval.

The council’s recent action essentially upheld an earlier ABA decision that Western State’s academic standards fell short.

The ABA has criticized low entrance exam scores, the number of dropouts and the low rate at which graduates pass the bar exam.

The action must still be ratified by the ABA’s House of Delegates in August, when Western State could appeal the decision.

Western State had sought an extension of its provisional accreditation, arguing that the school’s sale in late 2001 to a Pittsburgh-based company provided “extraordinary circumstances” that prevented it from meeting the ABA’s academic standards within five years, the normal time allowed.

The ABA’s council rejected that too. “Western State was repeatedly warned that the school was not making adequate progress toward achieving full approval,” says a letter to the school dated Wednesday.

But the council did recommend that a 10-month waiting period be waived if Western State reapplied for provisional accreditation if it is removed from the list of approved schools in August.

“We need to evaluate our options,” said Don Daucher, Western State’s attorney. “One is to keep fighting.... The other option is to talk to the ABA about this invitation [to reapply].”

Western State was granted provisional approval in 1998.

Full accreditation is widely considered the gold standard in legal education, because it allows schools to compete for the best students and teachers.