In a first-of-its kind move, the State Bar of California Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE) voted to withdraw the registration and terminate the degree-granting authority of Los Angeles-based Peoples College of Law (PCL), effective May 31, 2024. PCL is a registered unaccredited law school with a history of compliance issues 15 years in the making. Despite repeated attempts by the State Bar to assist the school to come into compliance, PCL has been unsuccessful in achieving or sustaining a compliant program of legal education.
After a 2020 on-site school inspection by the State Bar found multiple noncompliance issues, the school’s registration was renewed with conditions. The school has since failed to fully address the compliance issues identified. From January to May 2022, the school was nonresponsive to the State Bar’s queries on compliance and was formally served with a notice of noncompliance in June 2022. The CBE placed the school on probation in December 2022. Over the last year, the school has failed to show sustained compliance.
“The State Bar of California always offers to work with law schools under our regulatory authority to comply with their legal requirements in order to remain licensed in California,” said Leah Wilson, State Bar Executive Director. “Our charge is to establish minimum requirements and protect the interests, quality of education, and chance for success of California law students. When a law school continually misses that mark for a long period of time, this negatively impacts students. Consumer protection demands that we hold schools to standards. We appreciate the Peoples College of Law’s storied history, and we thank its supporters who spoke passionately on its behalf, but we simply cannot shirk our responsibilities and fail to protect consumers of legal education.”
While staff had recommended that the school’s registration be terminated immediately, the CBE, out of concern for the school’s remaining seven students, set the termination date at May 31, 2024. Those who have not completed their legal education by then (anticipated to be five students), would need to either transfer to another school or participate in the State Bar’s Law Office Study program. The State Bar stands ready to assist these students in finding placements to continue their legal education. The committee’s action also directed the law school to identify a custodian of records to assist students and graduates with transcript requests and advise its students and alumni as well as the State Bar of the procedure for requesting records.
Many of the PCL supporters at today’s meeting spoke during public comment of the importance of the diversity of the school’s students. The State Bar is committed to effectively and thoughtfully carrying out its role as a regulator of California accredited and registered schools. The State Bar recognizes that registered schools in particular can provide a low barrier to entry to the eventual practice of law, and that students of color comprise a significant percentage of their enrollment. However, as a recent Law School Profile released by the State Bar shows, while registered law schools generally have more diverse student bodies at first-year enrollment, their high attrition rates and low California Bar Exam passage rates mean that the access promise they suggest is illusory for most.
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