From the Managing Director
Jennifer Rosato Perea
The most important work of the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar took place last week at its February 2025 meeting in San Antonio.
Highlights included:
Standard 206: The Council is currently in the process of reviewing and amending Standard 206 to ensure that it complies with federal law, while still achieving the goal of ensuring access to legal education for all persons. During its February 21, 2025, meeting, the Council reviewed the latest draft of Standard 206 and considered potential changes to ensure compliance with the recent Executive Orders and the U.S. Department of Education’s “Dear Colleague” letter dated February 14, 2025. The Council intends to submit this draft with revisions to the ABA House of Delegates in August 2025, as previously planned, after which it anticipates the new Standard will be in full force and effect. The latest draft was revised following a second Notice and Comment period, which ended on January 6, 2025. The comments are here.
In the meantime, the Council decided to suspend the existing version of Standard 206 until August 31, 2025, when the adoption of the revised Standard is anticipated. A separate statement regarding this suspension is located here. As explained in the statement: “These decisions by the Council help to ensure that the revision of Standard 206 continues moving forward, while allowing the Council to integrate legal developments and forthcoming guidance from the Department of Education. The Council’s commitment to ensuring access to legal education to all people, including those who have been historically excluded from the legal profession, has not changed. However, the Council intends to ensure that the schools can comply with this standard consistent with applicable law.” The Council acted to suspend current Standard 206 pursuant to Rule 2(d), which authorizes the Council “to adopt emergency policies and procedures in response to extraordinary circumstances in which compliance with the Standards would create or constitute extreme hardship for multiple law schools.”
Standard 205: The Council asked the Managing Director to issue a Guidance Memo informing schools that literal compliance with the wording setting forth the protected categories in Standard 205 will not be required. The Guidance Memo will remind law schools of their continuing obligation to comply with federal and state nondiscrimination laws and provide any other appropriate guidance for law schools, especially those undergoing accreditation reviews. The Guidance Memo will also reinforce that the Council does not require law schools to take actions to comply with the Standards that are inconsistent with applicable law. The Council also requested that the Standards Committee review the existing version of Standard 205 as part of its ongoing work.
Other Standards under review: The Standards Committee met for a full day on February 19, 2025, including an open session. The Committee is continuing to review Standard 405 (Professional Environment) and Standard 303 in terms of increasing the number of required experiential learning credits. The Standards Committee has also appointed a working group to consider the possibility of ABA-approval for fully on-line law schools.
A few weeks earlier, the ABA House of Delegates concurred in three resolutions presented by the Section of Legal Education. Two resolutions were submitted to comply with Department of Education regulations, and the third was submitted to revise Standards related to Learning Outcomes. Law schools will be required to comply with the Learning Outcomes-related Standards beginning in 2026-2027. In the meantime, the Section’s Outcomes and Assessment Committee will be reaching out to law schools with resources to assist with the transition to the revised Standards.
All of the work of the Section is done by committed volunteers (including Council members and site visit teams) and the hard-working Section staff. Since I started as Managing Director nine months ago, the staff and I have worked to maximize their talents and experiences in pursuit of the Section’s highest priorities. I thought it would be helpful to let you know the staff “point persons” for different aspects of our work. They are:
- Deputy Managing Director (Stephanie Giggetts): responds to schools on decision letters and is the point of contact on other school matters such as variances, applications for acquiescence, provisional accreditation, and fact-findings.
- Senior Accreditation Counsel (Mimi Huang): oversees the data and site visit teams. She is also the point person for interim monitoring.
- Accreditation Counsel (Kirsten Winek): responsible for regulatory and compliance matters (primarily U.S. Department of Education requirements) and the Standards (including Standards Committee support, Guidance Memos, and House of Delegates process).
- Section Director (Erin Winters): responsible for Section matters (non-accreditation related), including publications, meetings and programs, and the website.
- Director, Accreditation Administration (Daniel Becker): primary liaison for the Annual Questionnaire and Bar Admission Questionnaire.
- Director, Accreditation Administration (JR Clark): primary liaison for non-J.D. and international programs, and coordinator of Council meetings.
- Director, Accreditation Administration (Sara Stretch): coordinator of the site visits and complaint processes.
- Manager, Law School Analytics and Reporting (Molly Nguyen): primary liaison for the Employment Questionnaire.
- Director of Section Operations (Denise Dempsey): manages budget and finance matters for the Section.
As Managing Director, I am committed to serving with purpose, humility and gratitude, and to support the Council in its essential work as the national accreditor for JD programs.