The University of North Texas Dallas College of Law, the city’s first public institution of legal study, may soon be denied its accreditation by the American Bar Association, signaling trouble for other struggling third tier institutions. 

The Dallas Morning News reports that an ABA committee declined to recommend accreditation for UNT Dallas, opened just two years ago, given the number of struggling students it enrolls, and because the school’s financial trajectory remains nebulous and unrefined.  New law schools typically apply for provisional accreditation after one year in operation.  A delegation from the school will speak before an ABA council in October and lobby them to give the school its seal of approval. 

“We’re glad we have a chance to go to the council and make our case, which we will do vigorously,” law school Dean Royal Furgeson told the News. “ We’re gonna do whatever it takes to get there.” 

Furgeson is a former federal judge who currently serves as the law school’s first dean.  He left the bench to join the UNT Dallas in 2013, notoriety in tow.  A sequence of controversial rulings and belligerent statements made in the course of a civil case prompted calls for his sanction or impeachment from assorted Texas dignitaries, including former House Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay. ( RELATED: Dallas Judge Shreds The Constitution, Steals Millions)

The news comes as the ABA’s own accrediting practices have themselves inspired controversy.  The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality, a committee which monitors accreditation practices in higher education and advises the U.S. Department of Education, rebuked the ABA’s for its relaxed standards, and recommended stripping the organization of its prerogative to accredit new schools for a full year.  Inside Higher Ed reports the committee said the bar association has “failed to implement its student achievement standards and probationary sanctions, while also falling short on its audit process and analysis of graduates’ debt levels.” 

In recent years, unemployment among recent law school graduates has climbed steadily, as has the level of debt JD candidates accrue. 

“The council believes that it is operating in compliance with the recognition criteria,”ABA’s managing director of accreditation and legal education Barry Currier said, “but will make any changes to its accreditation standards and rules of procedures that are necessary to stay in good standing with NACIQI and the Department of Education.” 

The move could dramatically impact young, low tier institutions like UNT Dallas who are seeking full accreditation to bolster stumbling reputations at a time when the pool of law school applicants is shrinking.  What’s more, law students from unaccredited law schools are generally precluded from sitting for the bar exam, lest a state court intervene on their behalf.  Should ABA be stripped of its accreditation authority, UNT Dallas’s first graduating class, and those of other unaccredited institutions, may find themselves a J.D. and no license to practice law. 

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