The Trump administration is expected to decide by late December whether to strip the American Bar Association’s (ABA) law school accrediting arm of federal recognition, a move that would not automatically end the ABA’s accreditation of law schools or change state bar-admission rules but could accelerate states’ efforts to approve alternative paths to becoming a lawyer.Two legal education experts told Fox News Digital that while most law students would be unlikely to lose access to federal loans if the ABA's accrediting arm loses recognition, the decision could accelerate a broader shift away from the organization's longstanding dominance over legal education, with states increasingly exploring alternative accreditation pathways that could change how law schools operate and who qualifies to practice law."I think the biggest thing is, everyone should know that the federal recognition of the ABA is just the first step," Adam Biggs, general counsel of the University of Austin, told Fox News Digital."If they get knocked off their perch, that's going to supercharge the conversations of these state supreme courts to create alternative pathways that are not just the ABA."The looming decision follows a September vote by the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), the federal panel that advises the Education Department on accreditation matters, which remained deadlocked over whether to recommend renewing the ABA's federal accreditation recognition.
Education Department staff have already recommended denying renewal, and now the decision rests in the hands of Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent to rule on whether the ABA's accrediting arm can retain its federally recognized status, which it has held since 1952.AI BACKLASH REACHES MAJOR UNIVERSITY WITH BOLD BAN ON LAPTOPS AND PHONES FOR LAW STUDENTSTKTK (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)The ABA has long served as the primary gatekeeper for legal education in the United States, with...