{"id":141772,"date":"2026-01-14T08:57:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:57:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/14\/new-law-school-set-to-open-over-ashes-of-past-legal-education-disaster\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T08:57:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:57:30","slug":"new-law-school-set-to-open-over-ashes-of-past-legal-education-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/14\/new-law-school-set-to-open-over-ashes-of-past-legal-education-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"New Law School Set To Open Over Ashes Of Past Legal Education Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019d be forgiven for wondering if Charlotte is cursed. Despite being the largest city in America\u2019s ninth-largest state, the last time we put a full-time law school in Queen City, we needed to set up a food bank to support the students<\/a>. Charlotte School of Law, an InfiLaw-run, for-profit law school, collapsed in 2017 amidst probation, bar passage carnage, and federal financial aid chaos.<\/p>\n

But, for better or worse, legal education is going to give Charlotte another shot. with Elon University<\/a> announcing that it has applied to the ABA for approval<\/a> to open a full-time law school on the campus of Queens University of Charlotte, kicking off in fall 2027 with 75 students<\/a>. This marks an expansion of Elon\u2019s existing part-time program in Charlotte. <\/p>\n

Back in 2023, when Elon University first started making noise about expanding its law school presence in Charlotte, we had some reservations<\/a>. While Elon boasts better academic credentials than the for-profit InfiLaw system, its main campus had also struggled with epically poor bar passage rates not too many years earlier, and we wondered whether a new program in Charlotte just shuffled the deck, replacing one troubled school with another. <\/p>\n

By the way, when we say \u201cepically poor,\u201d we mean Elon\u2019s first-time bar passage rate on the North Carolina bar exam was\u2026 0.00 percent<\/a>. It was around 46 percent when adding other jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

But a lot has happened since then. Elon\u2019s employment figures have steadily risen<\/a>, with nearly 87 percent of the graduating class in long-term, full-time jobs, and the underemployment score \u2014 where law schools often get away with murder \u2014 is a mere 2.9 percent. The bar passage rate improved too, and its two-year passage rate is consistently north of the 75 percent threshold required for accreditation<\/a>. The university has put together a decent resume for law school administration. With Elon expected to close its merger with Queens University of Charlotte, transitioning to a full-time law school provider became a plausible option.<\/p>\n

University President Connie Ledoux Book explained the decision: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe need for graduate and professional programs in one of our nation\u2019s fastest-growing cities makes the launch of a full-time law program a natural next step for Elon Law.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When Charlotte School of Law proceeded to lose access to federal loans, set up the aforementioned food bank, see its dean quit after a month<\/a>, fight a sad lawsuit against the ABA for daring to have standards<\/a>, and ultimately close \u201ceffective immediately<\/a>\u201d after the state yanked its license, the \u201cnatural next step\u201d seemed to be salting the earth so no law school could take root there again.<\/p>\n

Instead, Elon is approaching Charlotte as an opportunity for innovation. Rather than just add a new campus to the Greensboro operation, Elon is attempting a 2.5-year curriculum, to get students out into the workforce faster and presumably more cheaply. <\/p>\n

Charlotte is the largest U.S. city without a law school. Its metro population is projected to grow 21 percent between 2020 and 2034, and the city faces documented shortages of lawyers. Cities can import lawyers from law schools elsewhere, but building a local lawyer population is easiest if the new attorneys don\u2019t have to move.<\/p>\n

Does that mean everything will go smoothly? Of course not. Bar passage rates could slip. The market could shift. And, of course, the curse of the city of Charlotte could remanifest and the new campus elevators could open and spill forth a wave of blood like that hotel from The Shining. <\/p>\n

But, for now, we\u2019re wishing the city luck on its return to legal education.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post New Law School Set To Open Over Ashes Of Past Legal Education Disaster<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

You\u2019d be forgiven for wondering if Charlotte is cursed. Despite being the largest city in America\u2019s ninth-largest state, the last time we put a full-time law school in Queen City, we needed to set up a food bank to support the students<\/a>. Charlotte School of Law, an InfiLaw-run, for-profit law school, collapsed in 2017 amidst probation, bar passage carnage, and federal financial aid chaos.<\/p>\n

But, for better or worse, legal education is going to give Charlotte another shot. with Elon University<\/a> announcing that it has applied to the ABA for approval<\/a> to open a full-time law school on the campus of Queens University of Charlotte, kicking off in fall 2027 with 75 students<\/a>. This marks an expansion of Elon\u2019s existing part-time program in Charlotte. <\/p>\n

Back in 2023, when Elon University first started making noise about expanding its law school presence in Charlotte, we had some reservations<\/a>. While Elon boasts better academic credentials than the for-profit InfiLaw system, its main campus had also struggled with epically poor bar passage rates not too many years earlier, and we wondered whether a new program in Charlotte just shuffled the deck, replacing one troubled school with another. <\/p>\n

By the way, when we say \u201cepically poor,\u201d we mean Elon\u2019s first-time bar passage rate on the North Carolina bar exam was\u2026 0.00 percent<\/a>. It was around 46 percent when adding other jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

But a lot has happened since then. Elon\u2019s employment figures have steadily risen<\/a>, with nearly 87 percent of the graduating class in long-term, full-time jobs, and the underemployment score \u2014 where law schools often get away with murder \u2014 is a mere 2.9 percent. The bar passage rate improved too, and its two-year passage rate is consistently north of the 75 percent threshold required for accreditation<\/a>. The university has put together a decent resume for law school administration. With Elon expected to close its merger with Queens University of Charlotte, transitioning to a full-time law school provider became a plausible option.<\/p>\n

University President Connie Ledoux Book explained the decision: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe need for graduate and professional programs in one of our nation\u2019s fastest-growing cities makes the launch of a full-time law program a natural next step for Elon Law.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When Charlotte School of Law proceeded to lose access to federal loans, set up the aforementioned food bank, see its dean quit after a month<\/a>, fight a sad lawsuit against the ABA for daring to have standards<\/a>, and ultimately close \u201ceffective immediately<\/a>\u201d after the state yanked its license, the \u201cnatural next step\u201d seemed to be salting the earth so no law school could take root there again.<\/p>\n

Instead, Elon is approaching Charlotte as an opportunity for innovation. Rather than just add a new campus to the Greensboro operation, Elon is attempting a 2.5-year curriculum, to get students out into the workforce faster and presumably more cheaply. <\/p>\n

Charlotte is the largest U.S. city without a law school. Its metro population is projected to grow 21 percent between 2020 and 2034, and the city faces documented shortages of lawyers. Cities can import lawyers from law schools elsewhere, but building a local lawyer population is easiest if the new attorneys don\u2019t have to move.<\/p>\n

Does that mean everything will go smoothly? Of course not. Bar passage rates could slip. The market could shift. And, of course, the curse of the city of Charlotte could remanifest and the new campus elevators could open and spill forth a wave of blood like that hotel from The Shining. <\/p>\n

But, for now, we\u2019re wishing the city luck on its return to legal education.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019d be forgiven for wondering if Charlotte is cursed. Despite being the largest city in America\u2019s ninth-largest state, the last time we put a full-time law school in Queen City, we needed to set up a food bank to support the students. Charlotte School of Law, an InfiLaw-run, for-profit law school, collapsed in 2017 amidst […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Headshot-300x200-gW1pfB.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}