Senate Bill No. 1281

Introduced by Senator Block

February 19, 2016

An act to add Section 6061.7 to the Business and Professions Code, relating to law schools.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 1281, as introduced, Block. Law schools: unaccredited law school disclosures.

Existing law requires any law school that is not accredited by the examining committee of the State Bar to provide every student with a disclosure statement, subsequent to the payment of any application fee but prior to the payment of any registration fee, that contains, among other things, a statement that the law school is not accredited and the number and percentage of students who have taken and who have passed the first-year law student’s examination and the final bar examination in the previous five years, or since the establishment of the school, whichever time is less, as specified.

This bill would additionally require a law school that is not accredited by the examining committee of the State Bar to post specified disclosures required by the American Bar Association’s Standards and Rules for Procedure for Approval of Law Schools on the law school’s Internet Web site. The bill would additionally require a law school that is not accredited by the examining committee of the State Bar that has a bar passage rate below ____ over the previous three years to display its passage rate on its Internet Web site adjacent to, and in the same type size and font as, the law school’s name.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 6061.7 is added to the Business and
Professions Code, to read:

6061.7.  

(a) In addition to the disclosure statement required by
Section 6061, any law school that is not accredited by the
examining committee of the State Bar shall post all disclosures
required by Standard 509 of the American Bar Association’s
Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools,
as that standard may be amended, on its Internet Web site.

(b) Any law school that is not accredited by the examining
committee of the State Bar that has a bar passage rate below ____
over the previous three years shall display its passage rate on its
Internet Web site adjacent to, and in the same type size and font
as, the law school’s name.