Lynchburg, VA - Today, the American Bar Association (ABA) granted provisional accreditation to Liberty University School of Law. The school received provisional accreditation on its first try at the earliest date possible for a new law school. To achieve provisional accreditation within 18 months of the first entering class is virtually unprecedented. The school opened in August 2004 and will graduate its first class in May 2007. Founded by Dr. Jerry Falwell in 1971, Liberty is the largest evangelical university in the world.

Provisional accreditation grants Liberty University School of Law graduates the same rights and responsibilities as students who graduate from a fully accredited law school. Graduates are allowed to sit for the bar examination in any state. ABA accreditation is highly competitive and is attained through a rigorous self-study process, site visits, written reports and appearances before the ABA Accrediting Committee and Council. A new law school may not apply for provisional accreditation until the beginning of its second academic year, which began for Liberty in August 2005. Normally, the application process takes a full year, but an early site visit and a very positive and timely Site Team report paved the way for the School of Law to have early review by the Accreditation Committee, Council and the House of Delegates. Only 191 law schools are accredited in the country. Dean Bruce Green and the faculty are to be highly commended for building an excellent law school.

The law school facilities are some of the most technologically advanced in the nation, with classrooms and a mock trial courtroom that are state-of-the-art. The ABA Site Team found that the University’s commitment to provide and utilize the latest technologies, as well as personnel required to support them, is “extraordinary.” The Site Team observed that the school is propelled by a refreshing excitement, energy, and devoted sense of purpose.

As part of the lawyering skills program, the School of Law will roll out several legal clinics. One clinic works in conjunction with the School of Law and Liberty Counsel. Liberty Counsel now has a litigation office one floor above the law school. Students have the opportunity to be involved in constitutional law cases that have national implications, as they work with nationally recognized constitutional lawyers.

Mathew Staver, President and General Counsel for Liberty Counsel, also serves as Vice President of Law and Policy for Liberty University. He sits on the Board of Trustees and is Chairman of the Law School Steering Committee. While litigating religious liberty cases in the 1990s, the need to start a law school to train lawyers, judges and policymakers became evident. Dr. Falwell envisioned building a law school when he first founded the University. The law school’s mission is to equip future leaders in law with a superior legal education in fidelity to the Christian faith expressed through the Holy Scriptures.

Staver said: “Liberty University School of Law is the realization of a dream. The School of Law has a distinctive Christian mission. The law school combines superior legal education with the best of our Western legal tradition. The law is good if it is used properly, but the law can do great harm when it is separated from faith and eternal principles. The law school is training the next generation of lawyers and world leaders to use the law as a fulcrum for good.”

Applicants interested in applying for admission for the Fall semester can contact the School of Law at (434) 592-5300 or visit the website at http://law.liberty.edu.