The Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association is the recognized national agency for accreditation of J.D. programs. UMKC School of Law is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. 

UMKC School of Law values student input regarding any aspect of the educational process and encourages students to raise concerns and suggestions at any time with the Dean or any Associate Dean.  Students’ concerns with accreditation standards or any other matter may often be resolved quickly and directly without the need for formal complaint.  If, however, a student believes that his or her concerns regarding the law school’s compliance with ABA accreditation standards has not been resolved or chooses to forgo informal complaint mechanisms, the following formal complaint procedure is available.

Student Complaints Regarding Compliance with Accreditation Standards
As an ABA-accredited law school, The University of Missouri-Kansas City is subject to the ABA Standards for Approval of Law schools. The Standards may be found at http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/standards.html. Any student at the School of Law who wishes to bring a formal complaint to the Administration of the School of Law 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 Dean or any Associate Dean of the School.
2. The writing should describe in detail the behavior, program, or process complained of, and demonstrate how it implicates the School’s program of legal education and the School’s compliance with a particular identified ABA Standard.
3. The writing must provide both the name of the student submitting the complaint, the student’s official University of Missouri-Kansas City email address, telephone number, and a street address for further communication about the complaint.

Procedures for Addressing Complaints Regarding Compliance with Accreditation Standards:
The Dean to whom the complaint is submitted should acknowledge the complaint within ten business days of receipt of the written complaint or as soon as is reasonably possible under the circumstances. Acknowledgment may be made by email, U.S. mail, or by personal delivery.

Within one month of acknowledgment of the complaint or as soon as is reasonably possible under the circumstances, the Dean or the Dean’s designee shall either meet with the complaining student or respond to the substance of the complaint in 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.

Appeals may be taken to the Dean of the School, or, if the Dean of the School has decided the merits of the complaint, to the Policy and Planning Committee of the School of Law.

Any decision made on appeal by the Dean or the Policy and Planning Committee shall be final.

A copy of the complaint and a summary of the process and resolution of the complaint shall be kept in the office of the Dean of the School of Law for a period of ten years.

The Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar requires that each law school provide a number of disclosures on its public website.  Those disclosures can be found at https://law.umkc.edu/about-us/consumer-information.html.

Contact information for the Council: Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association, 321 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60654, 312-988-6738.