Ave Maria Law School gets provisional accreditation - Nation - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, Sept 6, 2002 by Gill Donovan

Ave Maria School of Law, a Catholic law school that opened two years ago, has received provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association.

Provisional accreditation signifies that the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Ave Maria School of Law substantially complies with the American Bar Association's standards for law schools and that its first graduating class next May will be eligible to take state bar examinations anywhere in the country. Full accreditation is available after a law school has been in existence for five years.

Ave Maria School of Law becomes the 26th accredited Catholic law school in the United States. Unlike other Catholic law schools, Ave Maria is not affiliated with any religious order or Catholic diocese but was formed by a group of Catholic laity, led by Thomas Monaghan, a conservative Catholic who donated $50 million to the school. He has said he is deeply concerned about a crisis of morality in the United States and envisions the school as a "West Point for Catholicism and the law" (NCR, March 23, 2001).