Arizona Summit Law School sues American Bar Association, claims abuse of power

Three for-profit law schools, including Arizona Summit Law School, are suing the American Bar Association, accusing the national accrediting body of abuses of power and unequal treatment.

The lawsuits, filed in federal court over the past two weeks, allege the ABA applies "arbitrarily" the standards required for law schools accreditation while giving a pass to other schools with lower outcomes.

Arizona Summit, which filed its lawsuit on Thursday morning in U.S. District Court in Arizona, is the last of the three schools to pursue litigation against the ABA. Its sister schools, Florida Coastal School of Law and the now-shuttered Charlotte School of Law, filed separate civil lawsuits earlier this month.

'Turned a blind eye to our achievements'

Arizona Summit, formerly known as the Phoenix School of Law, was put on a two-year probation in March 2017 for being out of compliance with admissions policies and academic standards and for failing to maintain a rigorous program. In January, the Bar Association notified the school that it was also out of compliance for having insufficient finances.

READ: AZ Summit aimed to redefine law school through diversity. What went wrong?

In a statement, Arizona Summit Interim Dean Penny Willrich said, the "ABA deliberately has turned a blind eye to our achievements, mission, and results — which include bar examination performance that at times has led the state and, despite a recent decline, remains consistent with nationwide trends and in compliance with accreditation standards."

Willrich said other law schools with similar or lower student credentials have not been found out of compliance with ABA standards nor been sanctioned by the ABA.

Arizona Summit President Don Lively in a statement accused the ABA of having accreditation standards that are "vague, indeterminate and subject to manipulation."

ABA accreditation is key to operations

The ABA accredits 204 law schools in the United States. Graduating from an ABA-accredited law school is a requirement to take the Bar exam in many states, and most states require graduates to pass the Bar exam to become practicing attorneys.

Arizona Summit is one of three law schools operated by a for-profit company, InfiLaw, and all three have run into accreditation issues with the ABA. The schools were founded by Lively, an attorney and law school professor, with the goal of diversifying the legal profession, one of the least diverse professions.

The ABA in October said Florida Coastal was out of compliance with accreditation standards.

RELATED: Arizona Summit has nation's lowest bar passage rate for '15 graduates

Florida Coastal's lawsuit filed earlier this month alleges that school officials "repeatedly asked the ABA for clarification, specificity and definition regarding specific actions it must take to demonstrate compliance with the association's standards, but the ABA has declined to provide such guidance."

The Charlotte school closed last year after being put on probation by the ABA and losing its federal student-loan funding. The Charlotte school's lawsuit claims that ABA's due-process violations caused the school to be excluded from the federal student loan program, making it impossible to continue to operations.

MORE: An Arizona Summit grad who failed Bar exam 6 times, keeps trying

Arizona Summit officials said they believe the school now fully complies with the ABA standards and have asked to have the prohibition lifted.

The school has raised its admission standards, requiring higher test scores. It also added counselors to help students and is emphasizing bar exam preparation. Officials said they have completed a fund-raising campaign to strengthen the school's financial position.

The Arizona school has been in existence since 2004 with its inaugural class boasting a 97 percent passage rate on the Arizona Bar Exam in July 2008, the highest among the state's three law schools.

In recent years, however, the school has struggled with declining performance on the exam. Nearly 70 percent of Arizona Summit graduates fail the Arizona Bar Exam on the first try, delaying their becoming practicing attorneys. School officials have been encouraging some students to take the exam in New Mexico, where they say it's easier to pass, and graduates had a 54-percent pass rate in February.

School officials said that Arizona Summit currently meets the ABA standard for bar passage because the bar association sets the standard at 75 percent passing in three of the past five years in all states where graduates take the test.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare that the ABA's accreditation decisions against Arizona Summit are "arbitrary and capricious" and violate due process. The lawsuit also asks the court to prevent the ABA from taking actions that would jeopardize Arizona Summit's accreditation while the lawsuit is pending.

The ABA declined comment on the pending lawsuits, but said in a statement that the courts have regularly upheld the association's law-school accreditation process.

"We will continue to follow our established procedures and expect to be successful in any future litigation challenging the actions of the Council," the statement said.

About Arizona Summit Law School

Arizona Summit is one of three law schools in the state, along with Arizona State University and University of Arizona.

Location: Central Avenue and Washington Street, downtown Phoenix.

Enrollment: 145.

Owner: InfiLaw, a privately held, for-profit company in Naples, Florida.

Bar-passage rates: First-time test takers: 31%. Arizona State University is 63%. University of Arizona is 64%. State average is 58%.

Average GPA of incoming students: 2.81. ASU is 3.75. UA is 3.63.

Median LSAT score of students (on scale of 180): 148. ASU is 162. UA is 161.

Minority-student percentage: 41%. ASU is 26%. UA is 33%.

Tuition and fees: $45,354 for full time; $36,692 for part time.

Sources: Arizona Supreme Court February 2018 Arizona Bar Exam results; Standard 509 Information Report 2017, American Bar Association.

Reach the reporter at 602-444-8072 or anne.ryman@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @anneryman.

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