Nashville School of Law Forum

[Nebby]

Terrible advice in this thread. OP, do not go to NSL. At least go to Memphis if you can't make UTK.

[NonTrat]

My question is, if anyone knows anyone that graduated from this school and then was able to sit for the bar in a different state?

Well to answer my own question, researching, looks like there was a recent case where this one TN attorney took it to KY's Supreme Court after he was denied to sit for the KY bar after graduating from Nashville School of Law.

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ky-supreme-c ... 25622.html

[pancakes3]

My question is, if anyone knows anyone that graduated from this school and then was able to sit for the bar in a different state?

Well to answer my own question, researching, looks like there was a recent case where this one TN attorney took it to KY's Supreme Court after he was denied to sit for the KY bar after graduating from Nashville School of Law.

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ky-supreme-c ... 25622.html

can you tl;dr the case for us?

[A. Nony Mouse]

He lost. I wouldn't rely on convincing other states to let you take the bar from NSL. That said, there's no reason at all to go to NSL if you want to work somewhere other than TN (not that you should probably go there anyway, but wanting to work in TN is certainly a prerequisite).

[NonTrat]

He lost. I wouldn't rely on convincing other states to let you take the bar from NSL. That said, there's no reason at all to go to NSL if you want to work somewhere other than TN (not that you should probably go there anyway, but wanting to work in TN is certainly a prerequisite).

He lost? So what did the judge mean by the last sentence?

[BigZuck]

He lost. I wouldn't rely on convincing other states to let you take the bar from NSL. That said, there's no reason at all to go to NSL if you want to work somewhere other than TN (not that you should probably go there anyway, but wanting to work in TN is certainly a prerequisite).

He lost? So what did the judge mean by the last sentence?

The last sentence...of the dissent?

[Traynor Brah]

He lost. I wouldn't rely on convincing other states to let you take the bar from NSL. That said, there's no reason at all to go to NSL if you want to work somewhere other than TN (not that you should probably go there anyway, but wanting to work in TN is certainly a prerequisite).

He lost? So what did the judge mean by the last sentence?

You were looking at the dissent. It would be a ridiculous mistake to attend NSoL if you wished to practice in another state.

[AReasonableMan]

He lost. I wouldn't rely on convincing other states to let you take the bar from NSL. That said, there's no reason at all to go to NSL if you want to work somewhere other than TN (not that you should probably go there anyway, but wanting to work in TN is certainly a prerequisite).

He lost? So what did the judge mean by the last sentence?

Even if you filed a lawsuit and won, lawsuits are not free. You're looking at a lot of time, money and stress for the opportunity to even sit for a state bar where graduates have under a 50-50 shot of passing and then having to compete for jobs against people from schools employers prefer to hire from. You would need so many things to break right that we're speaking about lottery ticket type odds just to get a decent job.

[A. Nony Mouse]

He lost. I wouldn't rely on convincing other states to let you take the bar from NSL. That said, there's no reason at all to go to NSL if you want to work somewhere other than TN (not that you should probably go there anyway, but wanting to work in TN is certainly a prerequisite).

He lost? So what did the judge mean by the last sentence?

The last paragraph of the binding opinion is:

We must agree with the conclusion reached by the Board of Bar Examiners and that of Dean Grosse, that the Nashville School of Law does not meet ABA standards or AALS standards and further is not a school which could be determined to be the substantial equivalent of a legal education program provided by approved law schools in Kentucky.   Brooks has not met his burden of proving that the Nashville School of Law is the substantial equivalent of Kentucky law schools.   Consequently, Troy Brooks does not meet the requirements of SCR 2.070(2)(a). - See more at: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ky-supreme-c ... DztyL.dpuf

Admittedly, this isn't really recent - it's from 2000. But I'd be shocked if there's much difference today.

[NonTrat]

Or maybe the original attorney who attempted to appeal the KY Supreme Court was just a poor attorney and that's the real reason he lost!

He was indicted for misappropriation of funds a few years later...

http://www.tncourts.gov/courts/court-cr ... roy-brooks

(I originally googled his name hoping to see a small website with a 'Admitted to Bar in TN & KY' in his 'About me' section)

[A. Nony Mouse]

A walking advertisement for NSL.

[AReasonableMan]

Or maybe the original attorney who attempted to appeal the KY Supreme Court was just a poor attorney and that's the real reason he lost!

He was indicted for misappropriation of funds a few years later...

http://www.tncourts.gov/courts/court-cr ... roy-brooks

(I originally googled his name hoping to see a small website with a 'Admitted to Bar in TN & KY' in his 'About me' section)

I don't see the link between being indicted for misappropriating funds, and being incompetent at trial. In fact, it's rather impressive he got a dissent in that case. The law and policy were both against a non-ABA accredited degree being sufficient to sit for an out of state bar exam. The whole logic of accreditation is it is supposed to verify that every student holding the degree has had a baseline level of legal education.

People can disagree if this is the case at some TTT institutions where students are assigned 3-4 pages per class as opposed to the regular 25-50. When you're speaking about unaccredited schools you're speaking about institutions that can't even live up to the TTT level. Moreover, these unaccredited schools aren't subject to the same ABA disclosure requirements, resulting in it being easier to mislead and defraud potential students. Although it may seem like the plaintiff in this case got screwed, it's likely the court's ruling saved dozens of students from a similar plight.