Florida Coastal School of Law

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The Florida Coastal School of Law is an ABA accredited law school located in Jacksonville, FL. Founded in 1996, the school received its full accreditation in 2002.

1 History
2 Points of Interest
3 References
4 External Link

[edit] History

Florida Coastal was founded in 1996 as the United States' first for-profit law school. Critics initially argued that a for-profit law school was an ill-fated idea based on the theory that student achievement and profits should be not balanced against each other. The long-term results of the endeavor of a for-profit law school have yet to be realized, but in the meantime, Florida Coastal graduates have had little trouble making their place in the legal world. The school immediately received temporary accredation from the ABA, and received its permanent accredation six years later. Initially ranked as a fourth-tier law school, FCSL has heavily invested time, energy, and resources in developing its prestige. Still, FCSL has remained a fourth-tier law school since its inception.

Among its achievements, FCSL established the Center for Law and Sports in 2005. The Center offers students a comprehensive sports law curriculum in which to obtain a certificate in sports law and concentrate their legal studies on the rapidly changing and dynamic sports industry.[1].

FCSL has also had great success with its moot court program. Cory Simmons, David Hollander, and Katherine Peters won the school's first national victory at the 2005 Chicago Bar Association Constitutional Law Competition. ^[1]

FCSL's first national moot court victory

Later that academic year, Chelsea Russel, John Canazarro, Jeremy Simons, Lacy Brinson, and Chris Duling ranked 24th in the world in the prestiguous Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. Lawrence Perrone was named best oral advocate at the 2006 Vale National Corporate Law Competition, Cory Simmons received the best oral advocate award at the 2006 Prince National Evidence Law Competition, and of the two FCSL teams sent to Florida's state-wide Orseck Criminal Law Competition in the spring of 2006, both made it to the final round and argued against each other for the victory. Lawrence Perrone was named the Best Oral Advocate of the preliminary rounds. In the final round, Lawrence Perrone and Emilia Walker were both awarded the Best Oral Advocate award while earning First Place Honors. ^[2] Most recently, Patricia Horal, Rachel Williams, Lacy Brinson, and Rick Marshall swept the 2007 Jessup Southeast Regionals, winning Best Oral Advocate and Best Brief Awards.

FCSL's mock trial program has also recently gained the school notoriety. The team of Rafael Caso, Stephanie Saussman, Mitchell Bishop, and Janeen Mira placed second in the 2006 Buffalo/Niagara Mock Trial Invitational.

[edit] Points of Interest

Florida Coastal recently led all Florida law schools with an 81.9% pass rate on the July 2005 State Bar Examination.
The school ranked fifth for the February 2006 Bar Exam with 77.6% passage rate (after FSU, UF, FIU, and Stetson Law).
As of Fall 2006, Florida Coastal School of Law has recently moved to a new location, a five-story, 220,000 square foot facility which also includes a 1,400 space parking garage.