The State Bar Association of North Dakota Winter 2014 Gavel Magazine | Page 8

FROM THE DEAN Kathryn Rand Dean, UND School of Law Re-Accreditation at UND School of Law: Frequently Asked Questions From Sunday, March 23 through Wednesday, March 26, a team of lawyers and academics chosen by the American Bar Association will conduct a site visit at the School of Law as part of a required national law school re-accreditation process. 1. Why is the law school being evaluated at this time? The UND School of Law is fully accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) (and has been since 1923). Each fully accredited law school is evaluated by the ABA every seven years. UND School of Law’s last re-accreditation occurred in 2007, so our regular “sabbatical” evaluation is scheduled for 2014. During the re-accreditation process, the School of Law remains fully accredited. 2. What is the law school’s accrediting agency? Beginning in 1921, the ABA adopted standards for the provision of legal education. The ABA Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar is the national accrediting agency for law schools. Since 1952, the Council has been approved by the U.S. Department of Education as the recognized national agency for the accreditation of programs leading to the first professional degree in law, the juris d