A review of the American Bar Associations' law school accrediting power by the U.S. Department of Education has been delayed until December of this year. The original hearing was scheduled for June but the department notified the ABA that it postponed the hearing, citing a "great volume of documents and comments" that were submitted in the matter.

The department had only renewed the ABA's accrediting authority last year through June. In the past, it has granted renewals up to five years. Part of the reason it granted a shorter renewal is because the department has expressed concern with the ABA's use of its authority, particularly with the association's implementation of a stricter diversity enrollment standard.

The ABA will retain its accrediting power until the new hearing date in December.

Associate Dean of Admissions Susan Palmer recently sent out an email that offers waitlisted students a new option. "We are now providing the option to sign an agreement to enroll at Virginia Law and withdraw all other applications to other law schools upon an offer of admission off the waiting list," her notice remarked. The binding option is available to applicants on both the priority and general waiting lists.

Palmer stresses that submitting a signed agreement is NOT a prerequisite for admission to the Law School from the waiting list but only an option. A student wishing to express their strong desire to attend UVA might wish to consider it. However, decisions about financial aid or scholarships are not affected by this agreement.

You may download the agreement off the school's website. If you have any questions, contact the UVA School of Law's admissions office.

The current state of the economy is having opposite effects on some firms for summer programs.

At a time when several firms are cutting back, Cravath, Swaine & Moore is going the other direction, boosting its program's size by more than 75 percent.

Cravath is bringing in 161 summer associates, up from 91 last year, all of whom received full-time offers. While it's too early to know how many of the new crop will accept — many are finalizing their decisions now due to clerkships — the firm anticipates 96 incoming associates this fall, according to the firm's spokeswoman.

The firm currently employs 481 lawyers. There are no plans to expand out of its New York stronghold or beyond the one branch office in London. The firm plans to rotate eight of the 161 associates through London's corporate department for half the summer.

On the other end of the spectrum, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft will only host 58 summer associates, down from 101 in 2007. While the reduction comes at a time when the firm is hurting from the market crunch — it laid off 35 attorneys in January — the firm says the decision, made more than a year ago, has nothing to do with the economy and everything to do with retention.

According to the firm, the reduction in summer hires was in response to retention returns and not the economy, though Cadwalader declines to disclose its associate attrition rates. Among New York firms, Cadwalader has ranked near the bottom of Am Law's 2007 associates survey. In New York, it ranked 73 out of the 81 firms participating.

Applicants often – and certainly sometimes wisely – pursue admission to law school through a part-time or evening program track. While not all law schools offer alternatives to full-time program, for many students, the part-time option offers a viable way to attend that dream school when either an LSAT score or GPA falls short of being competitive in the full-time pool. Typically, law schools do not officially present differing admission criteria between part-time and full-time applicants, however a quick survey of the numbers reveals a consistently more forgiving numeric range for part-time program applicants.

The Ave Maria School of Law announced it was moving - again. In a press release late last week, the school announced it was moving into more modest surroundings in Naples, FL: the former Ave Maria University temporary campus.

The school cited the "declining national economy and ongoing high construction costs due to the rising prices of raw materials" as reasons for the change in location. Originally, the law school was going to relocate to a new building in a town that Domino's Pizza Thomas Monaghan was starting in southwest Florida. The school even released drawings of the new building.

In December of 2007, Ave Maria announced it was selling the naming rights to the building for $20 million in order to fund construction. So far, the naming rights have not been purchased.

Additionally, the latest rankings released by U.S. News & World Report ranked Ave Maria in the lowest fourth tier for the second year. The school is also currently being sued by several former professors.