The extra wait is over for Concordia University School of Law, after the American Bar Association granted provisional approval for the Boise, Idaho law school.
“In our third year of operation, we continue to achieve the key milestones we set out to accomplish for our students and for the greater community,” said Concordia Law’s Dean Cathy Silak.
But it took longer than students in the inaugural class would have preferred.
Concordia University enrolled its first class, with 73 students, in fall 2012. But many of those students transferred to other schools, including 20 who left after the ABA postponed its decision on accreditation in August.
An additional 20 students took a temporary leave of absence to ensure they would not graduate until after the school secured accreditation. The Idaho bar exam requires examinees to be graduates of ABA-approved law schools.
Concordia’s inaugural graduates can now take the state bar exam in July and will celebrate commencement ceremonies on Aug. 8.
Concordia’s enrollment numbers were only slightly down from the year prior —100 compared to 110 students in fall 2013. It had 44 students in the class that entered in 2013 and 46 that entered in 2014.
Most law schools see significant enrollment jumps after receiving provisional accreditation.
Concordia Law is the only three-year law program to be offered entirely in Boise, Idaho, in close proximity to the State Capitol, Ada County Courthouse, and the Idaho State Supreme Court. The University of Idaho offers courses for second- and third-years in Boise. But its first-year program is in Moscow, 295 miles north.
