Phoenix International School of Law
A strange thing happened on the way back from Cooley … I discovered a new law school in Phoenix – The Phoenix International School of Law. It’s open (very open) for debate as to whether or not my ho hum grades and equally ho hum LSAT will even get my foot in the door, but the price is right, the location is definitely right and the school seems to be somewhat progressive with how it approaches legal training. I will be making a visit in about two weeks. There is, however, just one problem… the school is not ABA approved.UPDATE 5-9-2005: This school is off my list due to the fact that Stafford loans are unavailable - only private SLM-type loans that I definitely do NOT want.
posted by majqa @ 1:51 AM
5 Comments:
Oh no. Please dont do it unless you dont want to practice law. All this stress/commute/crap for not practicing? Watch, I'll end up not practicing. :-) Seems to be the way it goes.
Is this the same Phoenix school that has campuses all over California? They seem to be a speeded up school for professional people that want to take night classes. I have known people that have gone to this school for Bis Admin. From what I can tell it is a high stress group project.
Funny you mention that, but the answer is "no", but not too far off the mark. The business model appears to be very similar to that used by the University of Phoenix (the actual school you referred to with respect to having branches all over Calizona).
This particular law school is part of a chain of for-profit law schools operated initially out of Florida. The ABA is not keen on for-profit law schools and I believe only a handful have ever been approved.
I started work on my BS Admin degree at UOP, but after a single semester I felt it wasn't worth the money so I transferred to Regis University in Denver.
Good guess though Mquest. I think this operation is seeking to become the University of Phoenix of Law Schools.
I just finished my first semester at PhoenixLaw and had a great experience. Our Dean, Donald Lively was the founder of Florida Coastal School of Law and the parent company is in the process of starting law schools in Charlotte and Seattle in the near future. As for ABA approval, with the experience of FCSL and the financial stability in place, I am not concerned. Our charter class of part time evening students had entering GPA's and LSAT scores superior to that of 75 established law schools. The faculty is top notch and this semester we had two sitting AZ Superior Court judges teaching Criminal Law and Contracts and Gerry Hess from Gonzaga begins in the fall. I was headed to Cooley last year but decided to stay home and don't have any regrets.
I don't doubt that PISL is a solid school, but from a practical financial standpoint the inability to obtain Stafford loans makes the school a bit pricey compared to the local public law schools.
The school also fails to (thus far) address the issue as to whether or not PISL graduates can sit for the Arizona bar as the state is part of the ABA monopoly.
On the other hand, I don't think I need to worry about transferring into PISL with my 2.0-ish Cooley GPA and 151 LSAT (not sure the LSAT matters at this stage, but if it does it is a ho-hum score).
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