Alben W. Barkley School of Law

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The Alben W. Barkley School of Law (formerly the American Justice School of Law) is a private, for-profit law school founded in 2004 in Paducah, Kentucky. AJSL is located in the Paducah Information Age Park Resource Center. In 2006, the school acquired a lease and purchase option on an additional 45,000 square foot Law Library and an option to purchase an additional 20,000 square feet of space. The projected enrollment is 500 within five to six years. AJSL requires students to complete work in one of its law clinics or take practice skills courses before graduation. The school's founding dean was Dean Paul Hendrick, formerly assistant dean, acting dean, and faculty member of Florida Coastal School of Law.^[1] The first class entered in the fall of 2005, consisting of 61 students from 27 states.^[2] As of late December 2007, the physical facilities consisted of more than 68,000 square feet with an option to add an additional 20,000 square feet.

Contents 1 Accreditation 2 Lawsuit 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Accreditation

AJSL is not accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) although it is seeking accreditation.http://www.ncbex.org/comprehensive-guide-to-bar-admissions/ Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements], 2007 edition, National Conference of Bar Examiners</ref> In August 2007, the ABA denied AJSL provisional accreditation on the school's first application.^[3]

[edit] Lawsuit

In November 2007, Thomas L. Osborne, the chairman of AJSL's board and attorney for AJSL, resigned. According to Dean Hendrick, Osborne resigned just before a board meeting in which he was scheduled to have been removed.^[4] Dean Paul Hendrick said that the student and faculty complaints at the heart of Osborne's falling out with the school were unfounded, and that the complaints were part of a plot to prime the school for a hostile takeover.^[5] Hendrick claimed that there were actually a limited number of student complaints. Two non-tenured professors were terminated for activities not described in public announcements.^[6] To enhance connectivity with the regional community, AJSL formed a new board of trustees.^[7]

According to Osborne,who as Chairman of the Board participated in all AJSL presentations to the American Bar Association, he only learned of alleged mismanagement at the school in late fall of 2007. When he met to discuss corrections with the Board of Directors, he refused to respond to questions from the Board members about participants in a meeting he had attended and left the meeting.

On November 17, 2007, Osborne filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the student body and himself as a shareholder of the school, naming as defendants Hendrick, Vice Dean Jarrod Turner, and Wayne Shelton (C.P.A and Board Member). None of these claims was ever proved in court. All claims were withdrawn and dismissed in the settlement.

These claims were vigorously denied by all of the law school board members, and all of these claims were withdrawn in a settlement agreement agreed to by all parties before any hearings were held in the Federal Court. Judge Russell incorporated the settlement agreement in his order dismissing the case.

According to Dean Hendrick's statement to the Paducah Sun, the lawsuit boils down to an attempted hostile takeover of the law school. Stockholders who have guaranteed loans to develop the law school and who have indemnified former shareholders could have to pay about $1.8 million in debts if the school fails to receive accreditation and grow its student body.

Thirty of a total 185 students chose to join the suit against Hendrick, Turner, and Shelton. All claims in the complaint were withdrawn in the settlement agreement and the suit was dismissed by the Court. The majority of law school shares were transferred in the settlement to a local physician.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• American Justice School of Law