Distance School to Seek ABA Accreditation

Personally I think there should only be 2 levels in California.

ABA accredited or State Bar Accredited.

Oh I am positive that the State Bar will change in a big way
the educational and admission requirements to law school.

It is on a campaign to change law schools and I suspect only 50% of non ABA law schools will be operating 5 years from now.

National Law School making an honest mistake? lol that is probably the second dumbest thing I heard about National.

They are supposed to be a professional school. In that case
the school is supposed to give correct information to potential students on the licensing requirements and whether the school's program meets the license requirements, otherwise the professional degree issued by the school is nothing more then
fancy toilet paper.

Mis-information, misleading information, or lack of the correct understanding of the rules for bar admission or even pie-in-the-sky theories about possible bar admission is B.S. !

Saratoga University did this and they were closed down.

NATIONAL LAW SCHOOL HAS NO CREDIBILITY AND ITS DEAN
HAS MADE OUTRAGEOUS MISLEADING STATEMENTS.

IN FACT I AM GOING TO REPORT IT TO THE STATE BAR.

 

Again, you may very well be correct in everything you say. We don't know and will need more time to find out.

Secondly, I looked at the catalog of this school and saw that the dean is someone named M. Scott Donahey, and not the person corresponding with Randy Miller. Therefore, these comments may only have been an opinion of someone designated to respond to questions of potential students. I'm sure that this happens at all kinds of schools, and unless it came from someone in charge I wouldn't give it too much weight. This is especially true since national is currently only a registered correspondence law school in California. As such, questions on admissions in states other than California are outside its area of expertise and have not seen contrary claims in its official publications.

National is a brand new school (every school starts from here, some turn out okay and others fail) and I believe that it is too soon to form an opinion on them (either good or bad). It appears that they are attempting to make use of available technologies, which is something that I like. We'll need to have some time pass to see what kind of success they have in educating law students.

 

Saratoga was closed down? I had thought that the guy who ran it just disappeared and left its former students in limbo? Am I wrong?

 

Search the internet and you will find the article, (sorry short on time today) but yes first the State Bar pulled its registeration of Saratoga University, (usually it is the other way around, but in this case he was blatantly misinforming students with respect
to California Bar admission regarding the non bar J.D. and then ABA LL.M and the State Bar revoked his registeration for misleading hundreds of students.

After State Bar registeration was pulled then the BPPVE reached an agreement with Saratoga to refund particular students and and they would let him surrender his license to operate, otherwise they were going to get a Court Order to shut it down much like the BPPVE did with Columbia University in San Rafael.

Funny thing in Calif right now, is a school can be approved by the BPPVE to award Juris Doctor and still NOT be registerated as bar qualifying with the State Bar, of course this will change with the State Bar taking control over all law degree programs, period.
Its coming folks.

Nah, I am betting that National Law School does not survive, most correspondence law schools do not, it wont be able to get enough students, too much competition from the good ones
and it wont be able to comply with the new rules for correspondence law schools, this is the state bar's way of
controlling law schools, good new though for Taft and Northwestern which will thrive.

I have inside information on some of the changes and National will not be able to handle these changes once the State Bar takes over for the BPPVE.

 

Online Law School Delisted

STATE BAR ACTION FOLLOWS COMPLAINTS

By Howard Mintz

Mercury News
September 24, 2004


California regulators this week stripped Saratoga University School of Law of its status as a recognized law school as they sort through dozens of complaints against the owner.

After a hearing in which Saratoga's dean and owner, Michael Narkin, did not show up, the State Bar of California revoked the Internet correspondence school's registration in response to complaints from students who say they have been defrauded. Only students at schools registered with the bar can take the state exam to become lawyers.

The California Bureau of Private Postsecondary Vocational Education, which licenses schools such as Saratoga, has not yet taken official action, but considers the school ``effectively'' closed as a result of the bar's action, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

The bureau is reviewing 31 complaints against Narkin, who has been unreachable by regulators trying to find out what he's done with tuition money, as well as the students' grades and work material they need to get their law degrees.

The Mercury News reported last month that the state licensed Narkin to run a law school despite the fact he relinquished his law license nearly 20 years ago amid allegations he had defrauded clients and botched their cases.

Narkin in the summer sold the San Jose home listed as the address for the law school, and property records show he's established residence in Eugene, Ore. A message left at the phone number shown for that address was not returned Thursday. In August, Narkin told the Mercury News he planned to sell or close Saratoga, defended his running of the school and insisted he was trying to wrap up the students' final work as fast as he could.

But frustrated students say they can't get hold of Narkin. And Pamela Mares, the state bureau's spokeswoman, said investigators are still ``trying to locate Mr. Narkin and the student records.''

That creates a problem for students, who need transcripts of their work and grades if they want to transfer to another law school or take the bar exam. E.J. Bernacki, a bar spokesman, said students can still receive credit for their work for Saratoga before it was ``deregistered'' if they can provide the material.

California students may also be eligible for refunds from a state tuition recovery fund, but many of Saratoga's students, such as Claudia Keith of Ohio, signed up for the online school in other states. California is the only state in the nation that allows graduates of correspondence schools to take the bar exam.

Keith said Thursday she's going to try another correspondence school. ``I only pray it will not be a repeat,'' she said. ``I cannot waste another year of my life.''

In the meantime, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office is also looking into about a half dozen complaints against Narkin. Deputy District Attorney Yen Dang said she is trying to work with the state bureau, but investigators need to determine if Narkin accepted tuition with an intent to commit fraud for a criminal probe to proceed.


THE STATE BAR WAS PARTICULARY UPSET THAT SARATOGA UNIVERSITY MIS-REPRESENTED TO STUDENTS BAR ADMISSION TO CALIFORNIA AND OTHER STATES BASED ON HIS 1 YEAR NON-BAR J.D. DEGREE AND A 1 YEAR LL.M DEGREE FROM ABA LAW SCHOOL.

MANY STUDENTS TRIED IT AND DIDNT QUALIFY FOR CALIF BAR ADMISSION AND COULDNT GET THEIR TUITION BACK OR CREDIT TOWARDS THE BAR PROGRAM, THE OLD BAIT AND SWITCH TACTIC USED BY THIS DISGRADED FORMER ATTORNEY! he fled the state
and was last known to be in Oregon, since Saratoga many other
correspondence law schools failed and closed and new ones cropped up, the correspondence law school situation in Calif is out of control!! Except for Taft, Northwestern and Concord!

National Law School needs to be careful, do not advise about the bar regulations let the student contact each state for the rules, no speculating, National is so wrong about Texas bar admission its incredible!

 

This is probably good advice. While this claim by National's representative doesn't seem to have much merit, the wise thing to do is only to advise on matters of which are certain. National's graduates are eligible for the general bar exam in California and MAY have options in other states.

I don't believe that there has been any intention to mislead students here, but the better idea would be to have the student check with different state bars themselves (unless there is firm evidence to support other statements).

 

There wont be any National Law School graduates in my opinion. I doubt the school lasts that long.

2 reasons:

Market forces, there are way too many correspondence law schools and from tuition from dirt cheap to ridiculous state-bar accredited tuition rates for a correspondence school, lol, come now!

Actuallly only 2 of all these schools have been around over 20 years consistently with graduates passing the bar, Taft
and Northwestern and they will thrive in the new rule enviroment.

New State Bar rules coming into play; the BPPVE no longer able to give a law school a license to operate for a simple license fee, now ya got to apply directly to the State Bar, not an easy thing.
The State Bar will make starting up a law school a dificult thing.

The State Bar rules will be tough on correspondence law schools, on admission standards, perhaps even eliminating the 60 unit or
CLEP only exam rule and probably will require at some point a minimum student graduate/bar pass ratio for the school to keep
State Bar approval to operate.

Removal of the stupid non-bar J.D. degree which will keep focus on those students that are studying for the bar exam.

Changing are coming and many unaccredited residential law schools as well wont make the new rule cut.

Finally California is going to change the reputation of its law schools and every potential student should be happy that the bad apple law schools will be going down.

National started with alot of hype and ALOT OF INCORRECT INFORMATION, AND MISLEADING INFORMATION TO POTENTIAL STUDENTS AS TO ACCREDITATION PLANS AND BAR ADMISSION
AVAILABILITY IF YOU GET THEIR J.D. DEGREE.

That is the kiss of death for a correspondence law school nowadays!