ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 1, 1996 TAG: 9605010065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH
SOURCE: Associated Press
A decade after it opened, the law school founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson has won recommendation by an American Bar Association committee for full ABA accreditation.
``It'll take us to a whole new level of excellence,'' Robertson said of the decision by the ABA's accreditation committee. ``It's a major step forward.''
Regent University President Terry Lindvall disclosed the committee's action Monday. An ABA representative declined to confirm it because a letter hadn't been sent yet to the school.
``This is no longer a provisional place,'' said Lindvall, whose evangelical Christian law school has had provisional ABA accreditation since 1989. ``The ABA recognizes the sterling standards we have set.''
The recommendation still must be approved by two larger bodies of the bar association, the ABA council and the house of delegates. Lindvall believes those votes will be a formality.
But DeeAndria Hampton, administrative secretary to the ABA's office of the consultant to legal education, said a positive committee recommendation does not guarantee accreditation.
``The accreditation committee can make their judgment, but it's not necessarily their recommendation that gets the school approved or not,'' she said. ``At each level, there are going to be interpretations of whether or not the school is in compliance with ABA standards, and they may or may not differ.''
Still, J. Nelson Happy, the law school's dean, said he has never heard of a favorable accreditation committee recommendation being overturned.
For the school and Regent's 350 law students, ABA accreditation offers the law profession's seal of quality.
But the battle to win it has been turbulent. The law school's founding dean, Herbert W. Titus, was forced out in 1993 in what his supporters said was an effort by Robertson to make the school appear more mainstream.
After Titus left, eight faculty members complained to the ABA about tenure. Three law professors subsequently were fired, raising questions about academic freedom.
Lindvall said the ABA committee - which met with him, Robertson and Happy last week in Indianapolis - appeared satisfied that the school was protecting academic freedom.
``I think they saw that we are not only committed to our evangelical Christian mission, but we are part of the academic community, a genuine member,'' Lindvall said.
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