Legal Education In America Is Getting A Fresh Look, Without The ABA Accreditor At The Table

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.

The quality of legal education is inseparable from the quality of justice in America. As legal education and the profession confront a period of rapid change, AALS believes it is essential to bring together a highly respected group of stakeholders from multiple roles within law and education to examine these issues thoughtfully, carefully, and independently.

— Kellye Y. Testy, CEO and executive director of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), in a statement announcing the formation of the National Task Force on the Regulation of American Legal Education. The group, made up of judges, legal educators, lawyers, and higher education leaders, will examine the quality and regulation of legal education — but it notably does not include a representative from the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, the accrediting body for U.S. law schools. “We wanted to make sure we had independence from any existing accreditor. We wanted the distance to take a fresh look,” Testy told the ABA Journal.

Staci Zaretsky is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Bluesky, X/Twitter, and Threads, or connect with her on LinkedIn.