Characteristics and standards of ABA accredited law schools

by Cynthia Taylor

The ABA, an acronym for the American Bar Association, is a group that has set very high standards, and that enforces them, not only with lawyers already practicing, but also in ensuring continued high standards maintenance and improvement. Their influence also extends to law schools to assure that their high standards begin right at the grass roots. The assumption is that new members of the American Bar Association will come from these schools and therefore they have posed strict conditions on ABA accredited law schools.

To be able to practice law a student first needs to pass the bar exam. Passing the bar exam means belonging to the bar and being subject to maintaining the standards of the ABA. This means that lawyers that abuse their status’ as legal practitioners, or who misrepresent the ABA in any way, are liable to be disciplined and struck from the bar.

The ABA’s standards for law schools that they have an accreditation are numerous, very detailed, and include the fact the school needs to have the necessary funds to be able to give the students a good education in law. Many law schools work in association with other higher learning facilities, and despite this, each law school requires a dean to head up the law school. ABA accredited law schools also require that all professors employed by the law school go through an approval process by the ABA.

In ABA terms bigger is better, the more students, the bigger the library, the more extensive the resources, the better suited the law school is to receiving ABA accreditation. Be prepared, with all of these facilities as must haves, the tuition fees are bound to be higher, so be careful when choosing a law school for a lower costs option before considering applying for an ABA accreditation.