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Student Complaints About Compliance with ABA Standards

As an ABA accredited law school, UC Irvine School of Law is subject to the ABA Standards for Approval of Law schools. The Standards may be found on the American Bar Association web site. Copies of the ABA Standards are also available on reserve in the Law Library.

Filing a Complaint

Any student at the School of Law who wishes to bring a formal complaint to the Administration of the Law School of a significant problem that directly implicates the school’s program of legal of education and its compliance with the ABA Standards should take the following steps:

  1. The student complaint should be submitted in writing to the Law School’s Associate Dean of Academic Affairs or the Assistant Dean for Student Services.
  2. The writing should describe in detail the behavior, program, or process complained of, and demonstrate how it implicates the Law School’s program of legal education and the school’s compliance with a particular identified ABA Standard.
  3. The writing must provide the name of the student submitting the complaint, the student’s official UC Irvine School of Law email address, and a street address for further communication about the complaint.

Procedures for Addressing Complaints

  1. The Associate or Assistant Dean to whom the complaint is submitted should acknowledge the complaint within three (3) business days of receipt of the written complaint. Acknowledgment may be made by email, U.S. mail, or by personal delivery.
  2. Within two weeks of acknowledgment of the complaint, the Associate or Assistant Dean, or his or her designee, shall either meet with the complaining student or respond to the substance of the complaint in writing. In this meeting or in this writing, the student should either receive a substantive response to the complaint, or information about what steps are being taken by the school to address the complaint or further investigate the complaint.
  3. If further investigation is needed, when the investigation is completed the student shall be provided either a substantive response to the complaint or information about what steps are being taken by the law school to address the complaint within two weeks after the completion of the investigation.

Appeal Process

  1. Appeals may be taken to the Dean of the School of Law. The appeal must be made within two (2) weeks after communication to the complainant of the substantive response to the complaint.
  2. Any decision made on appeal by the Dean shall be final.

Maintaining a Written Record of the Complaint

A copy of the complaint and a summary of the process and resolution of the complaint shall be kept in a confidential manner in the office of the Assistant Dean for Student Services, from the date of the final resolution of the complaint through the date of full accreditation.

Subsequent complaints and a summary of the process and resolution of the complaint shall be kept in a confidential manner in the office of the Assistant Dean for Student Services from the date of the final resolution of the complaint through the date of the next accreditation period.

Protection Against Retaliation

The Law School will not in any way retaliate against an individual who makes a complaint under this section, nor permit any faculty member, administrator, employee or student to do so.

This policy shall be published in the Current Students section of the UC Irvine School of Law website.