Law school receives full accreditation

Jennifer Knight

Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2003 | 11:22 a.m.

UNLV's Boyd School of Law received full accreditation from the American Bar Association on Monday, less than five years after it opened -- making it one of the fastest accreditations allowed under ABA rules.

The ABA's House of Delegates, meeting in Seattle on Monday, confirmed an earlier recommendation to grant the school full accreditation.

The decision cinches the school's spot next to the 185 other ABA accredited law schools in the country.

"This means that we have officially joined the ranks of the mature and established law schools of this country," Richard Morgan, the law school's dean, said. "They had told us that we had indeed established a record for one of the fastest accreditations."

John Sebert, the ABA's consultant on legal education, said UNLV's school of law is off to a good start.

"I think (Morgan) and his colleagues have done an excellent job in putting together a strong school," Sebert said.

Before full accreditation is granted, a school must demonstrate that it has a strong group of students, applicants and faculty. It must also have a sufficient library collection and financial resources to support itself.

Accreditation gives private law firms and courts the assurance that graduating students have the skills necessary to practice law.

The Boyd Law School has been operating under provisional accreditation since 2000, so that its students could sit for bar exams anywhere in the nation. Full accreditation was the final step to complete that process.

The school has 454 law students. Before opening its doors in 1998, the school received 400 applicants for 140 seats. That number rose last year to 1,100 applicants and is expected to increase to 1,400 applicants next year.

"It is becoming a highly selective program," Morgan said.

One student said Monday that signing up for such a young school was worth it.

"I was confident that they would get accredited," said Luke Ciciliano, a second-year law school student. "I thought it was worth the risk because coming to a law school that is relatively new is a unique opportunity because you get a chance to shape the direction of the school."

The 5-year-old law school has been a rising star in the university system since it opened its doors. Its first graduating class placed above the state average in bar exam scores.

The school also attracted luminaries such as 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Jay Bybee and the nation's foremost expert on bankruptcy law.

"This is a school that is going to be around for generations and hopefully centuries to come," Morgan said.