The Charleston School of Law is not closing after all. The for-profit school announced it would accept new students in the fall, something it had said it might not do just a few weeks prior. To make it possible, the school announced additional layoffs.
Like most law schools, the 12-year-old school has struggled in recent years with declining enrollment. It announced in 2013 that it had entered into a management agreement with InfiLaw, which owns three law schools, and that it would consider a sale to the for-profit company. But that announcement created turmoil when students, alumni and faculty protested the sale because of concerns with educational quality.
Opponents have said the acquisition would decrease the value of a Charleston School of Law degree.
The school laid off seven faculty, one of a number of cost-cutting moves that is allowing the school to continue to enroll students, a news release said.
Charleston School of Law had previously laid off or bought out 24 staff members and four faculty members.
“It’s been hard to lose these members of our staff and faculty, but it’s been a necessary business move to ensure that the size of the school is appropriate for the number of students we have,” School of Law spokesman Andy Brack said in a statement.
The school is also was working with its landlords to consolidate facilities.
George Kosko and Robert Carr opened the school with three other South Carolina lawyers and judges in 2003. The founders paid themselves $25 million in profit between 2010 and 2013.
In 2013, two of the founders wanted to retire. The founders entered into the agreement with InfiLaw, which gave them $6 million to buy out the retiring founders.
InfiLaw filed an application with the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education to run the law school, but pulled it at the last minute when it appeared it would not pass. InfiLaw has said it has no plans to refile the application.
Kosko and Carr have said InfiLaw represents the only option for the survival of the school.
