Law Students

Two Law Schools Find Themselves on Government List

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By Amanda Griffin

Posted on January 5, 2016

Summary: Charleston School of Law and Thomas Jefferson School of Law are the newest schools added to a U.S. Department of Education investigation into finances.

The U.S. Department of Education keeps a close eye on schools whose financial practices may not be the most responsible. They first published a list of law schools that were being monitored in March but have since updated it to add two more schools titled a “heightened cash monitoring list.”

The newest additions to the list are Charleston School of Law and Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Ave Maria School of Law found themselves on the list in March. The Department of Education wants to see more accountability and transparency from the schools regarding their finances.

The law schools are on the lower of the two tiers of financial scrutiny. The higher tier of scrutiny requires institutions to pay student loan payments before being reimbursed from the federal government. On the lower tier the institutions will only have to face another review of how they spend their cash.

There are a total of 540 various universities and colleges, many that are for-profit, on the list. A total of 77 institutions were added in December. The reasons for being added to the list range from accreditation issues, outstanding liabilities, and late or missing financial statements.

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Charleston School of Law has been facing intense public scrutiny as for-profit InfiLaw submitted a bid to buy the school in 2013. State accreditors prevented the sale, allowing a Charleston attorney, Ed Bell, to buy the school in October. He intends to turn the school into a non-profit. Bell believes the school was added to the list for the past InfiLaw issues because before, the school was very successful.

Thomas Jefferson has been suffering from a lack of enrollment at the school, resulting in missed bond payments. Ave Maria was given a financial composite score of .5 based on factors such as net income ratio and reserve ratio, showing the school is not “financially responsible.”