The American Bar Association notified Florida Coastal School of Law that it may be significantly out of compliance with the ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools.
Barry Currier, ABA managing director of accreditation and legal education, wrote in a letter to the school Oct. 12 that the Accreditation Committee concluded Florida Coastal is not in compliance with regard to maintaining a rigorous program of education that prepares its graduates for admission to the Bar.
The letter also states that Florida Coastal is not in compliance with admission standards, specifically that a law school shall not admit applicants who do not appear capable of satisfactorily completing its program of legal education and being admitted to the Bar.
Florida Coastal Dean Scott DeVito said Monday he believes the Accreditation Committee is reacting to results of the February Florida Bar exam.
Results showed that 25 percent of Florida Coastal graduates who took the exam for the first time passed, compared to the average of 56.1 percent for graduates of all Florida law schools.
Five months later, 47.7 percent of Florida Coastal graduates sitting for the first time at the July exam passed, compared to 68.4 percent for all Florida law school graduates.
According to ABA Standard 316, a law school’s passage rate is sufficient if 75 percent or more of its graduates who sit for a Bar exam pass in at least three of the five most recent calendar years.
DeVito said the “ultimate pass rate” for Florida Coastal graduates is in the high 90s.
The ABA asked Florida Coastal to submit a report on its compliance with the standards and to appear before the Accreditation Committee when it convenes March 15-17 in Williamsburg, Virginia.
The letter states that if the information provided in the written report demonstrates Florida Coastal is in compliance, the committee may cancel the hearing.
When the ultimate pass rate is considered, “we are fully compliant,” DeVito said, “and our projections are we will remain in compliance.”
Florida Coastal is a for-profit law school owned by Florida-based Infilaw, based in Naples. The company also owned Charlotte School of Law.
The ABA put the Charlotte school on probation in November. The school did not renew its license to operate in North Carolina and shut down its website in August.
Infilaw also owns Arizona Summit Law School in Phoenix, which the ABA put on probation in March based on the school’s 25 percent Bar exam passage rate.
The ABA directed the school to develop an improvement plan. The results are scheduled to be reviewed in November.
Infilaw did not respond to a request for comment about the ABA’s action in regard to Florida Coastal.
