It appears that the data you have with respect to a 2.8 GPA requirement for graduation is either outdated and/or false. Elon Law is abandoning the 4.3 curve. The Elon Law Catalog resource, made available on the Elon Law website, shows that the classes of 2013 and beyond will be subject to a 4.0 curve with a 2.0 requirement for graduation. You can find it here:
http://www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/law/acad ... atalog.pdf
The relevant pages are 15, 16, 22, and 23, and information about the grading scale can be found on pages 28-30.
I don't recall the individuals who told me that the Elon administration has worked with students on helping them keep scholarships, but I have heard it from multiple students who were at risk of losing their scholarships. Scholarship agreements are renewed each year, and I can't state for a certainty that the GPA requirement to maintain a scholarship was lowered when I entered my second year, although I do vaguely recall something of the sort occurring. If I have some time, I may look for my scholarship renewal to see if I can give a more precise answer.
On page 30, the document shows that a 3.0 is the equivalent of a B, and the average grade for 1L courses must be between a 2.8 and 3.0. To answer the initial question to the best of my ability, I would say that earning a 3.0 would be however difficult it is to be at the middle/higher end of average and above. Again, this depends on the make-up of the class and the talents/work ethic of the individual who is trying to maintain a 3.0 or above. If the entire class is brilliant and hard working, and you are only of average intelligence and do no work, it may be extremely difficult to maintain a 3.0. It's nearly impossible to predict how well someone will do without knowing more about the person and the class make-up (which, at this point, is unknown).
Personally, I think law school grading is generally a crapshoot. I know several star performers in the classroom who are ranked at the bottom of the class, but those people appear to be "gunners." I've personally performed in a manner that I consider to be poor by my standards in a class when I left the exam feeling as if I knew absolutely everything on it; I've left other exams thinking I failed and done fairly well. I've seen people get an A in really tough classes without doing hardly any of the assigned cases just because someone hooked them up with a good outline before the exam. With this perspective, it becomes even more difficult to predict how well someone will do because it isn't really always about hard work. You can kill yourself mastering all of civil procedure, but if the main portion of the exam is a question about summary judgment, and you know everything but that one aspect of civil procedure, then you probably won't do so well despite having worked hard.
Maintaining above a 3.0 isn't just about hard work. It's also about luck, knowing the material,
applying the material well, knowing the professor and how they want essays structured, and having good organizational skills. Some of those things aren't particularly difficult, but they can make a massive difference in how well a student performs. But that's just my perspective.
I hope this helps.