TEXAS — Texas is the first state to no longer require law schools to be accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA). The move comes amid scrutiny from President Donald Trump surrounding the ABA’s diversity and inclusion standards reaffirmed in 2025. In a memo sent to U.S. lawyers, the Department of Labor argues ABA’s diversity practices are, “non-ideological at certain times, but takes decidedly radical ideological positions at others.”
Law experts say, for now, not much will change for students enrolled in law schools across the state. None have announced plans to drop their ABA accreditation since the January ruling.
A partial statement from St. Mary’s University says its law school, “…intends to maintain its American Bar Association accreditation as well as any state-required accreditation, in order to maximize the value and portability of our law degree.”
“It’s very unlikely that any Texas law school is going to drop its accreditation as a result of the Texas order,” said Daniel Thies, chair of the council of the ABA section of legal education and admissions to the Bar.
The requirement for Texas law schools to be accredited by the ABA had been established more than four decades ago.
“It’s just a standard that most people recognize in the law community across the country,” said Katy Boortz, a criminal defense lawyer for 20 years and counting. “It’s the gold standard, really.”
The goal of the ABA is to give law students a quality education at its accredited schools throughout the U.S., increasing their chances of passing the bar exam.
“Graduates of our accredited law schools passed the bar exam at a rate that is three times greater than graduates of schools that are not accredited by the council,” Thies said.
But as Texas drops the ABA accreditation requirement, giving the Texas Supreme Court oversight of law schools, concerns are brewing for future law school graduates who want to practice in other states.
“If the school that they attended is not considered an ABA accredited school, and the state they move to is requiring a student to have attended an ABA accredited school in order to sit for the bar exam, then that could present a problem,” Boortz said.
The Texas Supreme Court says their framework for law schools will rely on a set of “simple, objective and ideologically neutral criteria.” It will now decide who can sit for the bar exam.
“They’re inviting other law schools to potentially be formed in Texas and to say that they will recognize them,” Thies said.
As the state moves forward without the ABA accreditation requirement, other states like Florida and Tennessee are also weighing their options.
“If there were new and innovative ways, maybe less costly ways to get a law degree or ways that it could be achieved, more nontraditional, that could possibly be a way that this new law could create more lawyers,” Boortz said.