News Releases
Valparaiso Law Dean advises Republic of Georgia’s legal education future
Friday, July 11, 2008
The dean of Valparaiso University's School of Law will help the Republic of Georgia begin a major reform of its legal education system this month, playing a consultative role in a gathering of the country's law educators, judges and attorneys.
Jay Conison, vice chair of the American Bar Association committee that is responsible for the accreditation of law schools in the United States, recently was invited to help organize a two-day conference that aims to strengthen the rule of law and the legal education system in Georgia. His focus has been preparing the second day of "Legal Education: The Cornerstone of an Independent Judiciary and Skilled Legal Profession," which will deal with legal education and in particular with developing an accreditation system for Georgia's law schools.
"Georgia is a country that is committed to strengthening its legal and judicial institutions," Conison said. "There is wide recognition that building a strong system of legal education, supported by a system of accreditation, is vital for ensuring a high quality legal system and an independent judiciary."
During the conference, taking place July 18 and 19, Conison will speak about the importance of accreditation, serve on a panel dealing with issues in developing an accreditation system and moderate a closing session that will look toward next steps in developing an accreditation system for Georgian law schools.
Conison said conference organizers – which include the ABA's Rule of Law Initiative and U.S. Agency for International Development – hope that law professors, judges and attorneys will be energized to work together in improving legal education in Georgia.
"The main benefit of an accreditation system for law schools is that it assures people of the quality of the education those schools provide," Conison said. "Accreditation promotes public confidence in legal education and ensures that those who graduate from law schools and become lawyers or judges have had a rigorous education and are well-prepared for their positions."
An accreditation system also creates conditions for continuous improvement in legal education and more public respect for the law in general, Conison said.
Since 2005, Conison has served on the Accreditation Committee of American Bar Association's Section of Legal Education and Admissions. The Accreditation Committee is a committee of law school deans, judges, practicing attorneys, university administrators and members of the public that oversees the accreditation of the nation's law schools. He recently was appointed vice chair of the committee.
As part of his work in law school accreditation, Conison has chaired and participated in numerous accreditation visits to American law schools and to their overseas law programs. Prior to traveling to Georgia, Conison will stop in Prague to evaluate an international law program run by the University of San Francisco. He also recently was in Buenos Aires to visit the Valparaiso School of Law's summer program in Buenos Aires and Santiago, Chile, and to sign exchange agreements with two Argentinean law schools.
Conison said an ongoing initiative of the ABA is to provide assistance to nations such as Georgia that wish to build stronger systems of law and legal education. It was through that initiative that Conison was asked to help organize the conference, which is being supported by the U.S. Department of State and USAID and will include representatives of Georgia's parliament and ministries of justice and education.
Conison said his involvement with Georgia could continue if the conference is successful in encouraging the country to take further steps in developing an accreditation system for its law schools.
Conison has served as dean of Valparaiso's School of Law since 1998. He previously has served as co-chair of the Committee on Clinical and Skills Education of the ABA Section on Legal Education, chaired the Professional Legal Education, Admission and Development Section of the Indiana State Bar Association, and served as program vice-chair of the ISBA's 2002 Indiana Legal Education Conclave.
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