The Florida Supreme Court has ended its sole reliance on the American Bar Association (ABA) to accredit law schools. The Court issued a nine-page opinion, which explained that “[t]he Court is persuaded that it is not in Floridians’ best interest for the ABA to be the sole gatekeeper deciding which law schools’ graduates are eligible to sit for the state’s General Bar Examination and become licensed attorneys in Florida.”
In late 2025, a Supreme Court Workgroup on the Role of the American Bar Association in Bar Admissions Requirements was directed to review the current regulatory framework that requires ABA accreditation. In its Final Report, the workgroup found that “reasonable questions have arisen about, among other things, the ABA’s accreditation standards on racial and ethnic diversity in law schools and about the ABA’s active political engagement.”
The Florida Supreme Court’s ruling comes shortly after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had disparaged the ABA as a partisan, activist organization, and months after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier had accused the ABA of discriminating against Roman Catholics.
Uthmeier’s discrimination comment was related to the ABA accreditation of St. Thomas University College of Law, a Catholic law school in Miami, which was found to be out of compliance with the ABA’s non-discrimination and equal-opportunity standards (specifically Standard 205). The ABA has since determined that St. Thomas University is in full compliance with core accreditation standards.
Education Standards Have Been Changing in Florida
Education has been an important issue for Governor DeSantis, who has vowed to abolish “woke” policies within Florida’s educational institutions. DeSantis’ Florida has led the nation in overhauling existing university structures, including appointing GOP leaders as the heads of several state colleges and universities. Some say he’s created a blueprint for conservative reforms nationwide.
Texas Became The First State to Part Ways With the ABA. Florida Followed.
While DeSantis may be creating a blueprint for conservative reforms, Florida isn’t the first state to part ways with the ABA. That was actually Texas. In January 2026, the Texas Supreme Court issued an order finalizing a September 2025 tentative opinion that no longer required soon-to-be lawyers to attend an ABA-accredited law school.
A Brief History of ABA Accreditation
The ABA was formed in 1878 and first adopted standards for the professional education of prospective lawyers and their admission to the practice of law in 1921. The standards led to a formal approval program, and the ABA began the accreditation of law schools in 1952.
Florida has relied on the ABA as the state’s sole accrediting body for more than three decades. And, since 1992, the ABA has been the sole accrediting body for law schools. Schools are accredited based on a very long list of Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools. These standards include a wide range of requirements, from qualified faculty to sufficient library and information resources, facilities, equipment, and technology.
How Does This Affect Florida Law Students?
Starting October 1, 2026, Florida can begin reaching out to alternative accreditors for law schools. Graduates of ABA-accredited law schools will continue to qualify to sit for the state’s bar exam. But so will graduates of law schools that are accredited by any “subsequently recognized programmatic accreditor,” according to the Court.
The opinion states, “to be clear, under the rule changes, graduates of ABA-accredited law schools will continue to be eligible to sit for the bar examination, and the rule changes do not preclude any law school from continuing to seek ABA accreditation.” So, it’s likely that many Florida law schools will retain their ABA accreditation.
As for law schools that wish to part ways with the ABA, Florida has not yet decided which new accreditors it will recognize. The rule changes in Florida specifically state that any new accrediting agency must be recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and approved by the court. However, the court has not finalized its procedure for approving those accreditors.
The opinion says that the court will start by reaching out to the seven agencies currently recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for accrediting institutions that offer degree programs to see which agencies may be interested in the job.
There Are Already Unaccredited Law Schools Out There
In the United States today, roughly 30 to 40 law schools operate without ABA accreditation. Many of them are in California, where law students aren’t required to attend an ABA-accredited law school before sitting for the bar exam. However, most lawyers consider ABA-accredited law schools to be better and more rigorous, and believe they offer greater career opportunities. So, if you know someone working in Big Law, it’s almost guaranteed that they went to an ABA-accredited law school.
It’s also tricky to get student loans to attend a nonaccredited law school. Students who wish to attend a law school that’s not accredited by the ABA may have trouble getting federal financial aid, including Pell Grants and federal student loans. They may have to resort to private loans instead. But those private loans may be for less because nonaccredited law schools are generally cheaper to attend than accredited ones.
However, if you start your coursework at a nonaccredited school, and then want to transfer to an accredited school, you may have to retake some of the coursework. Your credits probably will not transfer.
It’ll be interesting to see how the alternate accreditation affects Florida law schools in the long term. Will many schools choose to keep the ABA accreditation, even if it’s not required in Florida? Will other states choose to follow Florida’s lead and move away from ABA accreditation? Most experts on legal education don’t expect widespread change right away.
Related Resources
- Legacy Admissions in Law Schools Are Slowly Being Eradicated (FindLaw’s Practice of Law)
- Cooley’s Close Call with the ABA (FindLaw’s Practice of Law)
- 2026 ROI Rankings Show Which Law Schools Provide the Most Bang for the Buck (FindLaw’s Practice of Law)
