ABA Required Disclosures

The following information about Jacksonville University College of Law is provided in accordance with American Bar Association (ABA) Standards and Rules of Practice.

Accreditation

Consistent with accreditation protocol dictated by the American Bar Association (ABA), the Jacksonville University College of Law began the accreditation process in the spring of 2023. Our goal and highest priority is to achieve provisional accreditation by the time our first class of students graduates. The College of Law is not currently approved by the American Bar Association (Council of the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, 321 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60654, 312-988-6738) and makes no representation to any applicant that it will receive approval from the Council before the graduation of any matriculating student.

Jacksonville University
General Counsel
2800 University Blvd N, Jacksonville, FL 32211
904-256-7549

ABA Standard 509(b) Information

The ABA Standard 509 requires law schools to disclose the following:

• Admissions data
• Tuition and fees, living costs, and financial aid
• Conditional scholarships (No scholarships offered by the College of Law are conditional on future academic performance beyond College of Law requirements to remain in good academic standing.)
• Enrollment data, including academic, transfer, and other attrition
• Numbers of full-time and part-time faculty, professional librarians, and administrators
• Class sizes for first-year and upper-class courses; number of seminar, clinical and co-curricular offerings
• Employment outcomes
• Bar passage data

Consistent with accreditation protocol dictated by the American Bar Association (ABA), the Jacksonville University College of Law began the accreditation process in the spring of 2023 and the College of Law's first cohort will graduate in 2025. Information required under ABA Standard 509(b) will updated accordingly. 

Program Information

• Type of School: Private
• Application Deadline: 7/1/2022, 12/1/2022*
• Application Fee: $0
• Academic Calendar
• Semesters: Fall, Spring, Summer
• Months students may begin study: August, January* 
  Months the Law school confers degrees: May 
• Required for Graduation: 90 Credits 

* Spring starts are no longer available.

The Fall 2022 J.D. Cohort

The following 1L profile represents the most updated information from the Class of 2025 and is based on details shared by students in the application form and materials.

• Number of Applicants: 107
• Acceptance Rate: 22.43%
• Class Size: 14
• Age Range: 21 - 32
• 50% Women
• 21.40% Students of Color
• 8 Undergraduate Institutions

Academic Percentiles               25th          50th          75th

LSAT                                          154           154.5         159.75 

GPA                                            3.17          3.32           3.69

Other Required Disclosures: Standards 509(c)

• Refund of Fees 
• Academic Calendar
• J.D. Program Requirements, Course Offerings and Schedules
• Curricular Offerings and Schedules
• Transfer of Credit
  • The College of Law will consider transfer applications from applicants with superior academic records from ABA accredited institutions. Transfer applicants will be accepted only to the extent that vacancies exist in the second-year class. A student may transfer up to 30 credit hours from an ABA accredited institution only with written permission from the College of Law academic dean. The full Transfer Policy is included in the College of Law Student Handbook. 
• Articulation agreement: The College of Law currently does not have any articulation agreements with other institutions.

Student Learning Outcomes

As part of the Jacksonville University College of Law’s mission to provide quality legal education, the Law faculty established the following learning outcomes, with the expectation that every student will have attained competence in each area by the time of graduation.

1. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the conceptual frameworks, principles, and procedural rules in areas of substantive law.
2. Identify legal issues and questions raised by different factual conditions.
3. Demonstrate competency in legal research, analysis, reasoning, and problem-solving.
4. Demonstrate the ability to engage in effective written legal analysis and transactional documents. 
5. Demonstrate the ability to effectively engage in oral communication in the legal context, including advocacy and negotiation.
6. Understand the professional and ethical responsibilities to clients, the legal system, and society.
7. Model appropriate professional and ethical conduct.
8. Understand cross-cultural competency, the impact of bias and racism in the law, and the responsibility of lawyers to improve access to justice for all members of society.

Credit Hours For Coursework

The College of Law adheres to federal law and ABA definitions of a credit hour. ABA Standard 310(b) provides a “credit hour” is an amount of work that reasonably approximates:

1. not less than one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction and two hours of out-of-class student work per week for fifteen weeks, or the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time; or
2. at least an equivalent amount of work as required in subparagraph (1) of this definition for other academic activities as established by the institution, including simulation, field placement, clinical, co-curricular, and other academic work leading to the award of credit hours.

The College of Law currently operates on 15-week semesters in the Fall and Spring and an 8-week Summer term, inclusive of reading days and final exams. For the JU College of Law purposes, in-class time is calculated in 50 minute “hours” per credit over 15 weeks, or other equivalent for more-condensed courses. All faculty instruction time is calculated at this rate. All other academic time is calculated in 60-minute hours. For each credit, students are expected to spend a minimum of 2.5 hours on out of class time. This means that at least 42.5 total hours, accumulated through some combination of in-class and out-of-class time, are required for a "credit hour." 

Direct faculty instruction, for purposes of this policy, includes any time allotted for monitored examination, as well as any time allotted for mandatory faculty-led review sessions or mandatory faculty-student meetings. Out-of-class student work includes student work required to complete traditional reading assignments, writing and/or research assignments, group problems, and/or any non-traditional out-of-class assigned student work, as well as the hours of student work required to prepare adequately for classes and examinations (monitored or take-home) and to complete take-home examinations.  Both direct faculty instruction or classroom time and out-of-class student work are determined in the aggregate over a semester or term.  

Effective as of July 1, 2023, for each type of coursework for which the Law School grants credit toward a degree, the requirements specified below will apply:

The full-time Law Faculty, upon the recommendation of the Curriculum Committee, establishes the number of credit hours allotted for each course. To assess whether a course proposal meets these requirements, the Curriculum Committee normally looks at the number of credit hours suggested in the course proposal and reviews the course syllabus, reading assignments, and assessments to determine compliance with the accreditation requirements for instruction time and out-of-class preparation time. If it appears the contact hours or out-of-class preparation time may be insufficient, the Curriculum Committee will request that the course proposal or syllabus be modified to comply with the applicable standards prior to approval.

The Associate Dean for Academic Affairs is responsible for monitoring this policy to ensure consistency and compliance with ABA accreditation standards. Jacksonville University College of Law will not offer a course that does not meet the minimum minutes of instruction per credit hour or does not involve the appropriate combination of in-class instruction, direct faculty instruction, and out-of-class student work as required by ABA Standard 310.

The Associate Dean will schedule regular class periods to ensure a minimum of 750 minutes of direct instruction per credit hour. To the extent that this schedule is disrupted, resulting in fewer than 750 minutes of direct instruction, the faculty member must schedule at least one of the following outside of regularly scheduled class periods to account for the deficit: 

• a monitored exam;
• a mandatory faculty-led review session;
• mandatory faculty-student meetings; or
• other similar mandatory session involving direct instruction.

Fall and Spring Semester Courses

A 3-credit course will ordinarily meet for 180 minutes each week for a total of 2,250 minutes of direct instruction over 12.5 weeks, followed by an examination period. Students are expected to spend a minimum of 7.5 hours on out-of-class work per week during the semester, plus an additional 6 hours or more on end-of-semester exams or other assessments.

Summer Term Courses

A 3-credit course will ordinarily meet for 360 minutes each week for a total of 2,520 minutes of direct instruction over 7 weeks, followed by an examination period. Students are expected to spend 90 hours on out-of-class work during the term.

Seminar (Paper) Courses

Seminar courses, with the consent of and after consultation with the Associate Dean, may be scheduled in a way that results in fewer than 750 minutes of classroom time, but no fewer than 42.5 hours of combined in-class and out-of-class work, consistent with ABA Standard 310, in recognition of the additional time allocation for preparation of a substantial paper.

Externships, Co-Curricular Activities, and Independent Studies

For externships, co-curricular work (e.g., law review), and independent studies, a credit hour shall be defined as an appropriate combination of in-class instruction, direct faculty instruction, and out-of-class student work equivalent to a minimum of 45 total hours, consistent with ABA Standard 310.

Other Disclosures and Documents

• Admissions
  • Standards for admission
  • The Jacksonville University College of Law evaluates applications for admission holistically.
  • Class of 2025 profile
• Qualifications for admission to the bar
  • In addition to a bar examination, there are character, fitness, and other qualifications for admission to the bar in every U.S. jurisdiction. Applicants are encouraged to determine the requirements for any jurisdiction in which they intend to seek admission by contacting the jurisdiction. Addresses for all relevant agencies are available through the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The necessary questions will be included in the JU application. 
• Financial Aid
• Faculty and Administration profiles
• Law Faculty Bylaws

Compliance with ABA Standards

As an institution seeking accreditation by the American Bar Association (ABA), Jacksonville University College of Law (COL) recognizes and respects the ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools. Moreover, the COL elected to operate in compliance with ABA Standards since its inception.  The ABA Standards may be found on the American Bar Association website.

As outlined in ABA Standard 510, any student at the COL who wishes to bring a formal complaint to the administration of the law school for a significant problem that directly implicates the school’s program of legal education and its compliance with ABA Standards should do the following:

1. Submit the complaint in writing through the electronic form entitled JU College of Law ABA Standard 510 Complaint Form. The forms will be submitted Vice Dean Margaret Dees. If you prefer, you may email your complaint directly to Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs Courtney Barclay, using the Subject: COL ABA 510 Complaint Submission. Complaints received in this manner shall be addressed adhering to the same process and timeline for complaints received via the electronic form. All emailed complaints must include the information required on the form.
2. The written summary should indicate that this is an ABA Standard 510 complaint and describe in detail the behavior, program, policy, process, or other matter that is the subject of the complaint. The summary should also explain how the matter implicates the law school’s program of legal education and its compliance with a specific, identified ABA Standard(s).
3.  The writing must provide the name, official law school email address, and a street address of the complaining student, to allow further communication with the complainant.
4. The Vice Dean or designee will acknowledge the complaint within three business days of receipt of the written complaint. Acknowledgement may be made by email, U.S. mail, or by personal delivery, at the option of the administrator.
5. Within two weeks of acknowledgement of the complaint, the Vice Dean or designee shall either meet with the complainant or respond to the substance of the complaint in writing. In this meeting or in this writing, the student shall either receive a substantive response to the complaint or information about what steps are being taken by the law school to address or further investigate the complaint.
6. If further investigation is needed, the student shall be provided either a substantive response to the complaint or information about what steps are being taken to address the complaint within two weeks of completion of the investigation.
7. Students may appeal decisions made on complaints. Appeals should be delivered in writing to the Dean of the law school while referencing the specific details of the original complaint.
8. Any decision made on the appeal by the Dean shall be final. The Dean’s decision will be documented in writing and shared with the student by email, U.S. mail, or by personal delivery.
9. A copy of the complaint and a summary of the process and resolution of the complaint shall be kept by the administration in the COL Dean’s Suite for a period of ten years from the date of the final resolution of the complaint.

SUBMIT A COMPLAINT