American Bar Assn

After a three-year campaign to upgrade its faculty, facilities and entrance standards, Western State University College of Law has been refused accreditation by the American Bar Assn., college officials confirmed Friday. Officials of the privately owned college, with 1,500 students on campuses in San Diego and Fullerton, will seek reconsideration and hope to meet with the ABA's Committee on Accreditation late in June, said James M. Brower, dean of the Fullerton campus.

The $51,000 that was raised through a celebrity golf tournament in June sponsored by the Mexican-American Bar Assn. Scholarship Foundation will be awarded in grants to Orange County Latino high school graduates. Charlotte Serna and Oscar Castro will receive $3,000 each as the winners of the the Efren Herrera Foundation Scholarship Award. (Herrera was the tournament chairman.

Chapman University will establish what could become Orange County's first law school accredited by the American Bar Assn., university officials said Friday. Officials will not discuss details until next week, but they said that administrators have been exploring the possibility of a law school on the campus for about a year. Chapman President James L. Doti will announce the creation of the school on Monday. Western State University College of Law Prof.

Western State University College of Law, whose graduates include a quarter of Orange County's judges and court commissioners, received provisional accreditation this week, ending a dispute that had threatened to damage the school. "We're sort of on top of the world," said Maryann Jones, Western State's dean. The American Bar Assn.'s decision marks a reversal of fortune for the Fullerton school, which, at one point, had been at risk of losing its accreditation altogether.

Gearing up to do battle at congressional hearings next week, supporters and critics of Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. squared off over his federal court record Wednesday, with the American Bar Assn. rating him "well qualified" to sit on the nation's highest court and liberal interest groups denouncing him as "far out of the mainstream."

Whittier College Law School officials said Tuesday that they will permanently relocate the fully accredited law school from Los Angeles to Costa Mesa. Although officials, who will make a formal announcement today, would not disclose the exact location Tuesday, the new site is expected to be on property owned by real estate developer C.J. Segerstrom & Sons, which helped attract the 650-student law school to Costa Mesa.

The American Bar Assn. on Monday approved by a resounding margin a resolution opposing zero-tolerance policies in schools. School districts across the country have adopted such policies, with mandatory expulsions or suspensions for alcohol, drug and weapons offenses by students.

The American Bar Assn. refused Wednesday to take a stand on doctor-assisted suicide, voting that the matter be left to state legislatures. In adopting the innocuous proposal during the association's annual meeting, the group shied away from becoming embroiled in a controversial issue that some members warned could result in a drop in membership and hurt the bar's public image.

A year ago, if you wanted to attend a fully accredited law school in Orange County, you were out of luck. Today, there are three to choose from after Western State University College of Law in Fullerton on Tuesday won accreditation from the American Bar Assn. after a three-year effort.

Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, which counts as alumni nearly a quarter of Orange County's judges and commissioners, may lose its national accreditation, severely jeopardizing student recruitment. American Bar Assn. accreditation brings the commercial law school prestige and allows its graduates to take the bar exam anywhere in the country. If the school loses the designation, few states, if any, other than California will allow its graduates to sit for the exam required to practice law, and even in California the students would have to take extra steps before they could take the test.