DOJ Threatens Antitrust Probe of ABA Legal Education Council

The U.S. Department of Justice threatened an antitrust investigation against the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar over accreditation standards that limit the involvement of adjunct professors. This threat followed an October 7 letter signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. The letter argued that current limits could not be explained by differences in instruction quality and that adjuncts often possess more practical experience while being paid less than full-time faculty, which helps keep tuition costs down. The council was given 15 days to change the standards or explain why the rule does not violate antitrust laws.

The investigation targets standards governing faculty size and responsibilities in legal education. The council had previously proposed changes to require full-time faculty to teach more than half of all coursework, while current standards require them to teach substantially all of the first one-third of each student’s coursework. The outcome could force changes to accreditation standards and potentially affect tuition costs.

The Trump administration is poised to eliminate the power of the American Bar Association Education Council, and the Justice Department uses executive privilege while the American Bar Association challenges his executive orders.