THOMAS JEFFERSON LAW SCHOOL "Regional Accreditation"

Hello Everyone,
I have been toying with the idea of enrolling for the masters of science of law at T.J.School of Law Accreditation - Master of Laws and Master of Science of Laws - Thomas Jefferson School of Law.
I am thinking of taking one or two classes to see if this is really something for me..

Under Accreditation they state that they are ABA accredited which is wonderful, however nowhere does it say that they are regionally accredited.

If at any point, this does not work out for me, would it be hard if not impossible to transfer the credits earned to a regionally accredited master program?
Last but not least, I'd like to have your input as to utility of the degree in the workplace.
Thank you,
Pilot

 

In that TJSL is a standalone ABA accredited law school (as are some other law schools) it has no regional accreditation. The ABA accredits only JD programs in 200 of its 201 approved law schools; the only exception is the ABA approved LLM in Military Law at the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School (TJAGLCS) in Charlottesville, VA.

Technically the LLM or JSM (for non-lawyers) offered by TJSL is not accredited; but nor is any LLM offering from any standalone ABA law school except the one exception at TJAGLCS. However, the question you pose is interesting. Would a RA university allow transfer credit earned that were earned at an ABA only law school, possibly some might others likely wouldn’t. As regards the standalone ABA law school LLM, such a degree nor its credits would be RA.

Per your question regarding the utility of the LLM or JSM degree in industry; I wouldn’t believe such a degree would not be accepted in that it would be awarded by an ABA approved law school. From an industry (outside of academia) perspective, the degree LLM or JSM from TJSL is a legitimate degree even though the degree itself would be officially unaccredited; conferred by an ABA approved law school.

 

This is an interesting question.

Most law schools are part of a larger, regionally accredited university. In such cases, the law school has both regional accreditation (as part of the university generally), and it normally also has ABA approval (for the law school specifically).

However, some law schools are "standalone" or "freestanding"; they are not part of a larger university. TJLS is one example; other examples in California include Southwestern Law School and the University of California's Hastings College of the Law.

All of these standalone law schools (and there are various others across the country) have ABA-approved JD programs -- but they don't have regional accreditation. And ABA says that their approval only covers JD programs (with the single exception noted in the previous post).

So where does that leave non-JD degree programs offered by such schools? You could argue that they aren't covered by ABA (since ABA normally only approves JD programs), and that they aren't covered by regional accreditors either (since these schools lack regional accreditation). In theory, then, it could be argued that a TJLS MSL degree or a UC Hastings LLM degree is completely unaccredited.

But in practice, I don't think that such degrees are perceived that way. The US Dept of Education recognizes ABA as a "national accreditation agency" for "freestanding law schools" in general. So from the USDoE perspective, a TJSL MSL or UC Hastings LLM would be regarded as a "nationally accredited" degree, despite ABA's policy of only approving JD degrees.

So TJSL coursework or degrees would probably be regarded as nationally accredited. While credit transfer can never be guaranteed, I doubt that this would pose a problem for most regionally accredited schools, because ABA approval is a highly respected form of national accreditation. As noted above, UC Hastings is not regionally accredited either, but it is part of the most prestigious public university system in the world, and is one of the most highly ranked public law schools in the Western US.

 

For purposes of credit transfer -- which is the issue that the OP raised -- you could look at it that way.

However, this viewpoint could also be confusing, because it doesn't work for purposes of financial aid (which could be the next consideration after credit transfer). If a freestanding law school is described as "institutionally unaccredited", it implies that students at such schools are ineligible for Federal financial aid, because such aid is only available for schools with US Dept of Education-recognized institutional accreditation. The USDoE doesn't recognize programmatic accreditation alone.

But while ABA is usually regarded as a "programmatic accreditor", it turns out that USDoE officially recognizes ABA as an "institutional accreditor" in the case of freestanding law schools only. So for financial aid purposes, TJLS does have national institutional accreditation.

I generally agree, as far as credit transfer goes. However, the rules are more rigid when it comes to financial aid.


*****

One other point: not all freestanding law schools lack regional accreditation. It's optional; some are both RA and ABA, while others are ABA-only. In fact, TJLS was RA + ABA from 1976 to 2006; then they voluntarily resigned their RA and went ABA-only. The long history of TJLS as an RA institution is another factor that would likely facilitate credit transfer.

 

Slight correction: TJSL was RA-only, not ABA, from 1976 to 1996 (California allows non-ABA law schools). In 1996, they gained ABA approval, and became RA + ABA. In 2006, they resigned their RA and went ABA-only.

 

Great info & advice
Thanks to all of you

 

In my view, the TJSL LLM or JSM is well overpriced at more than $28K for an online format, officially unaccredited degree/s, and from a 4th tier law (bottom-tier) school.

 

Some might suggest that even their ABA-accredited JD degrees are overpriced. TJSL recently made headlines when they were hit with a class-action lawsuit by one of their own JD graduates. An honors graduate of the school has apparently been unable to find work with a TJSL JD, and now alleges that "the San Diego-based law school commits fraud, by using misleading post-graduation employment and salary data to attract new students."

In fairness, problems with JD placement are not confined to TJSL. It wouldn't surprise me if there were a lot of other law schools watching this case nervously.

 

False reporting for rankings purposes apparently isn’t only isolated to the bottom-tier law schools, e.g., Villanova School of Law …
Villanova U. Reveals Its Law School Gave False Reports of GPA's and Scores - Admissions & Student Aid - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Breach of trust: Law schools obsessed with rankings fudge graduates' employment figures
Breach of trust: Law schools obsessed with rankings fudge graduates' employment figures

The ABA is changing its methodology as regards rankings information submitted by ABA approved law schools.
Keeping an Eye on the Upcoming ABA Law School Survey - Morse Code: Inside the College Rankings (usnews.com)

 

Update: It was announced today that lawsuits have been filed against 15 more law schools in seven states. There are now lawsuits pending against 18 of the approximately 200 ABA-accredited law schools in the country.

The schools affected by the latest lawsuits are as follows:

As noted in the previous post, one of the affected schools (Villanova) has previously admitted to misrepresenting their admissions statistics.

 

What would you expect from a school run by lawyers? The truth?

 

Interesting