Students And Alumni Seek Injunction To Prevent Closure Of Golden Gate Law School

The Recorder, Golden Gate University Law School Impending Closure: Upcoming Hearing to Determine Injunction Request as Students Prepare to Transfer:

As faculty, students and alumni of Golden Gate University Law School continue the fight to keep the 123-year-old institution open, a hearing is scheduled next week in a California state court for the plaintiffs’ motion for injunctive relief against the ”sudden and inexplicable” attempt to close the program.

A hearing on the motion for an injunction seeking to prevent the GGU law school’s closing will be held Tuesday, July 30 in the San Francisco County Superior Court before Judge Richard B. Ulmer Jr.

Ryan Griffith, lead attorney of Bay Area Receivership Group in Berkeley, California, and adjunct professor and alumni of GGU, filed a reply brief this week in response to the university’s opposition to the injunction request. In February, Griffith filed a complaint on behalf of four students and the alumni association for breach of contract, promissory estoppel, unlawful business practice, and fraud after the university announced its law program closure in a “blast email.”

However, it wasn’t until March when the American Bar Association approved a revised Teach-Out Plan, which provided that the school’s accreditation will continue until July 2027 and admittance of new students will stop after this summer. Current law students are scheduled to transfer to “successor schools,” the University of San Francisco and Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Griffith told The Recorder that the plan has never been shared in detail with affected students and staff, and that university president David J. Fike “unilaterally” announced the plan in November 2023, despite the ABA’s rejection of it just one week prior.

According to the complaint, Fike and the university had allegedly engaged in “several schemes” that burdened the program with millions of dollars in debt, a large reduction in its full-time law school class size, and a “hasty” instituting of online legal bachelor’s and master’s programs.

Prior TaxProf Blog coverage:

• Struggling San Francisco Law School Slashes Class Size, Cancels Tuition (Sept. 30, 2022)
• ABA Gives Golden Gate Law School 3-Year Extension To Meet 75% Bar Passage Accreditation Standard (Mar. 30, 2023)
• Golden Gate University Law School Faces Bankruptcy, Closure (June 21, 2023)
• 122-Year Old Golden Gate Law School Will Keep Its Doors Open A Little Longer Despite Continued Financial Woes (June 26, 2023)
• Golden Gate Law School Won’t Close, But Faculty Layoffs May Be Coming (July 14, 2023)
• Golden Gate Law School Sends Discontinuation Notices To Tenured Faculty, Paving Way For Possible Termination In FY25 (July 17, 2023)
• Golden Gate Will Terminate Its JD Program In May 2024; 1Ls And 2Ls Can Complete Their Degrees At Other Law Schools (Dec. 1, 2023)
• ABA Rejects Golden Gate Law School's Plan To Terminate Its JD Program (Dec. 2, 2023)
• July 2023 California Bar Exam Results (Dec. 22, 2023)
• Students And Alumni Association Sue Golden Gate For Closing Its JD Program (Feb. 20, 2024)
• ABA Approves Golden Gate Law School's Teach-Out Plan, Releases FAQ (Mar. 8, 2024)
• Students And Alumni Seek Court-Appointed Receiver In Last Ditch Effort To Save Golden Gate Law School (May 23, 2024)
• Golden Gate Law Students Ask Court To Keep School Open Another Year (June 29, 2024)

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