Support for Renewal of ABA Law School Accreditor Recognition

SUMMARY

On September 23, City Bar President Matthew Diller delivered oral public comment before the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), urging the Committee to renew recognition of the Council responsible for accrediting U.S. law schools. President Diller emphasized the important public role of nationwide accreditation in ensuring confidence in the quality of legal education and allowing graduates of accredited law schools to pursue careers across the country.

Drawing on his 15 years as dean of Cardozo and Fordham Law Schools, President Diller also described the Council’s accreditation standards and processes as rigorous, fair and supportive of diverse institutional missions, while providing essential safeguards against practices that could shortchange students and the public.

REPORT

ORAL PUBLIC COMMENT OF MATTHEW DILLER,
PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK CITY BAR ASSOCIATION

HEARING BEFORE THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON INSTITUTIONAL QUALITY AND INTEGRITY (NACIQI)

SEPTEMBER 23, 2026

Chair Greene and members of the Committee: My name is Matthew Diller. I am dean emeritus and a faculty member at Fordham Law School and have the privilege of serving as president of the New York City Bar Association. I previously served for fifteen years as the dean of Cardozo and Fordham Law Schools here in New York. I make these comments in strong support of the Council’s vital role in accrediting law schools.

First, as president of the New York City Bar, I believe that fair, effective nationwide accreditation for law schools is a matter of profound public concern. The Council serves the public by giving legal employers, and through them their clients, confidence in law graduates’ professionalism and substantive knowledge. The fact that a job applicant has graduated from a Council-accredited law school, anywhere in the U.S., tells an employer that the graduate has received a strong grounding in fundamental fields of law and the structure of our legal system. As a result, graduates of Council-accredited law schools enjoy the freedom to pursue legal careers throughout the country. Confidence in the Council’s standards is so high that all 50 states deem graduates of Council-approved law schools eligible to sit for the bar examination.  Revocation of the Council’s status as an accrediting agency would cause widespread confusion in the legal profession, leaving students, law schools and lawyers uncertain about where their degrees would be recognized.

Second, while I am not here to speak on behalf of Fordham or Cardozo Law Schools, I can say as the former dean of both those schools that I experienced the Council’s standards and processes as reasonable and fair. In my experience, the Council has broadly sought input from stakeholders. I do not know a law school dean who agrees with every standard the Council has set, but the Council is widely recognized for promoting robust dialogue on important issues in legal education. Critically, I cannot think of a single instance in which, as a dean, I thought the Council’s standards required something of our school that was contrary to sound pedagogy. Conversely, I can think of many instances in which the Council’s standards prohibit law schools from pursuing actions that would short-change students and the public.

While it has set baseline standards, the Council supports schools in pursuing a wide range of missions and goals. I served as dean of two faith-based law schools: Cardozo, which is Jewish, and Fordham, which is Roman Catholic. The Council’s standards expressly recognize and facilitate the distinctive enterprise of faith-based legal education. One of the Council’s “substantive values” is, in fact, “to respect the varied missions of law schools.” As a dean, I never felt that the Council’s standards impeded my law schools’ faith-based missions. But, if I ever had, I knew that the Council has a process through which faith-based schools can adopt policies reflecting their foundational commitments.

At bottom, the Council is rightly regarded by judges, lawyers, and legal educators as a rigorous agency that applies its standards consistently and regularly, across law schools of many different types and missions. I urge the Committee to renew the Council’s recognition. Thank you.