Charleston School of Law officially became a 501(c)(3) on Dec. 1.
The law school started the process to achieve nonprofit status in October 2023 with an application filed with the American Bar Association Council on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar.
Approval came from the ABA in March 2024. That same month, the law school filed an application for a new license with the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, the state licensing authority.
The nonprofit status includes the addition of a newly elected board of trustees and named interim president, Hall Cobb (’12), founder and senior partner at Cobb Hammett Andrews LLC Law Firm.
“As we enter this new chapter, we are committed to strengthening alumni engagement and expanding our fundraising efforts to support student success and facility enhancements,” Cobb said. “The Charleston School of Law has come a long way since my days as a student, and I am proud to be part of shaping its future and building on its legacy.”
J. Edward Bell III, the president of Charleston Law, said the school will begin a search for a full-time president.
In December 2021, Charleston Law was close to achieving its long-term goal of becoming a nonprofit organization. But it first needed to resolve a dispute with the city of Charleston.
The school had filed a lawsuit against the city of Charleston for breach of contract. It said the city agreed to let it sell its building in return for 25% of the purchase price. The law school planned to use its portion of the sale proceeds to become a nonprofit entity.
The South Carolina law school was founded by a group of local attorneys and judges in 2004. It earned ABA accreditation in 2011 but quickly fell into financial trouble when applications dropped the next year. Bell, a local attorney at the time, acquired the school in 2015 and announced he would take it to nonprofit status.
