Ave Maria School of Law Dodges Bullet, Retains Accreditation

[WSJ_law_blog]

Over the last year, Loyal Law Blog readers have read a lot of bad news about Ave Maria School of Law. (Examples of professor and student defections and related lawsuits, as well as problems the school had selling naming rights to its new building can be found here, here, here and here )

Now we have a dash of good news about the Catholic law school that will soon move from Michigan to Florida. (Hat tip: ATL) The American Bar Association has told the school that it’s in compliance with a standard that requires the school “maintains conditions adequate to attract and retain competent faculty” and remains on the list of ABA-approved law schools, according to a school-wide email sent by acting Dean Eugene Milhizer. Last September then-Dean Bernard Dobranski received a letter from the ABA that said the group had “reason to believe” the school, which is set to move to Florida in 2009, isn’t in compliance with that standard.

How did the saga begin? In 2006 the ABA dispatched a fact-finder to the school, founded in 2000 by Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, after a then-majority of the faculty sent a formal complaint to the ABA alleging that Dobranski excluded them “from any meaningful role in deciding the propriety of a relocation,” intimidated faculty members into not openly opposing the relocation, and prevented faculty from participating in major parts of the school’s education program, among other things. Last year several dissident professors were either terminated or denied tenure, and then filed a lawsuit.

Ave Maria still needs to receive “acquiescence” from the ABA to retain its accreditation upon making the move to Naples, Florida, near Monaghan’s new Catholic town, also named Ave Maria.

You left out some important facts that can mislead readers, so I will set the record straight:

1. Last year, the ABA dismissed all but one of the many complaints the dissident faculty made to the ABA;

2. The ABA NEVER concluded that Ave Maria violated any ABA standards; and

3. This week's news of the ABA's determination that the school is in compliance with all standards vindicates the school administration and deals a heavy blow to the dissident faculty.