Scroll Top

Join thousands of law students - it's free

Charleston president quits eight days into job

Related Articles

It’s a BAD week for… 

New starts, after Charleston School of Law president Maryann Jones quit before signing her contract. Jones was appointed president on Nov. 13 effective immediately but sent her resignation letter after only eight days on the job.

“The level of vitriol, with all sides making me a lightning rod for an unfortunate situation that was not my making, makes this truly a situation that I am unwilling at this stage of my life to undertake,” Jones said in the resignation email. “In trying to do what must be done and should have been done months ago, I have become the focus of everyone’s frustration and anger. Please accept this as my formal notice that I will not continue in this role. I am profoundly saddened, as I had hoped to see this through to a positive conclusion for the law school.”

The unfortunate situation she is referring to is the controversy  surrounding the possibility of the sale of the law school to the for-profit InfiLaw System, of which two of the school’s three owners, George Kosko and Robert Carr, support. The third owner, Ed Westbrook, wants to create a nonprofit corporation to run the school (which was already established as a for-profit institution in 2004), according to the Post and Courier. In August 2013, InfiLaw made the first public announcement of intentions to purchase the South Carolina law school. Students, faculty and staff have been outwardly opposed to the sale, saying Charleston School of Law is of higher caliber than the three other schools currently under the InfiLaw umbrella: Florida Coastal School of Law, Charlotte School of Law and Arizona Summit Law School.

A letter from Westbrook to Jones reveals that Jones was only offered a three-month contract, and that he was disappointed in her for publicly speaking out in support of the InfiLaw sale despite agreeing to be objective just days earlier. 

admin

admin

Digital Magazine
Newsletter Signup

Get unlimited access

Get a premium subscription to the National Jurist for less than $2 a month.