Students File Four More Suits Against Law School

SANTA ANA — Four more students have filed lawsuits against Chapman University’s still unaccredited law school, bringing to 13 the number of students charging that they were lured into the program under false pretenses.

After promising “the finest law education available anywhere” at “one of the nation’s premier law schools,” a lawsuit filed by student Michael Clark alleges, the university was refused accreditation.

According to the suit, filed Aug. 29 in Orange County Superior Court, university officials “suppressed facts which, through want of communication, made the representations . . . misleading.”

Similar lawsuits were filed the same day by students Bryan D. Levine, Brian L. Walder and Eddie Schuller.

The string of lawsuits began earlier this year after the American Bar Assn. twice rejected Chapman’s application for accreditation, citing concerns about lax grading and the quality of the faculty, among other things. ABA accreditation allows graduates to sit for the bar exam in any state. State accreditation would at least allow the students to practice in California, but Chapman doesn’t have that either.

In response to growing concern among students that they might not be able to practice law after graduation, university officials last month took the unprecedented step of offering complete tuition refunds, amounting to about $18,000 a year, to any second- or third-year students who leave the program by next Monday and are willing to sign statements promising not to sue the university. To date, Chapman spokeswoman Ruth Wardwell said, at least 10 students have accepted that offer.

“The idea of being in litigation with our students is difficult to even conceive of,” she said. “The last thing we want to do is litigate; the first thing we want to do is work with our students to provide them the best possible legal education.”

To that end, Wardwell said, the university is working to improve its legal program and will submit another application for accreditation this month.

“We are confident that we are doing everything possible to earn ABA approval,” she said.