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The Appalachian School of Law (ASL) is a fully accredited private law school on a four building campus in Grundy, Virginia, a small town near the convergence of Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The school offers a three-year Juris Doctor degree, and enrolls approximately 370 full-time students.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Appalachian School of Law - Student Body )〕 The law school was founded in 1994 and it admitted its first class of students in August 1997. ASL was started and brought to Buchanan County, Virginia as a tool of economic development for the region. The school is fully accredited by the American Bar Association. ASL is notable for its focus to community service and leadership, emphasizing professional responsibility and alternative dispute resolution in its curriculum and requiring students to complete 25 hours of community service per semester in order to graduate. Each student is also required to complete an externship before graduation. According to ASL's 2013 ABA-required disclosures, half of the Class of 2013 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. ASL was also the site of a triple homicide that took place on January 16, 2002. Princeton Review named ASL one of the 168 best law schools.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 ASL Makes The Princeton Review's Best 168 Law Schools ) 〕 According to law professor blog "The Faculty Lounge", based on 2012 ABA data, 38.5% of graduates obtained full-time, long term positions requiring bar admission, 9 months after graduation, ranking 178th out of a total of 197 law schools in the United States. 〔Rosin, Gary. "Full Rankings: Bar Admission Required, Full-Time, Long Term", The Faculty Lounge, March 30, 2013. Retrieved on February 24, 2014, http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2013/03/-full-rankings-bar-admission-required-full-time-long-term.html. -- For the latest Employment Summary Reports from the American Bar Association, Section of Legal Education, see http://employmentsummary.abaquestionnaire.org/〕 ==History== ASL traces its roots back to 1993 when Norton, Virginia lawyer Joe Wolfe came up with the idea to create a law school in Central Appalachia. His idea was well received by local business leaders and a steering committee was founded in 1994 and grew to eighty members. The committee surveyed lawyers and found that legal education needed to emphasize professional responsibility and alternative dispute resolution as these pillars of law school were becoming more important in today's law practice. The committee gained permission from the Virginia General Assembly to start a law school in 1995 and continued to secure endorsements from local civic associations and industrial development authorities. Buchanan County, Virginia approached the committee in 1996 and offered the grounds and buildings of the former Grundy Elementary and Jr. High Schools to which the steering committee accepted. A $1 million loan (which was later converted into a grant) financed the buildings' renovations.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Buchanan’s 10-year-old $2.5 million debt forgiven )〕 The State Council of Higher Education in Virginia granted the school the ability to enroll students studying for the Juris Doctor Degree in 1997. The charter class of 71 students first attended classes on August 12, 1997.〔 Buchanan County brought ASL to Grundy in order to revitalize a town that had been in a steady economic decline since the town's Flood of 1977. ASL has brought a positive economic impact on its home town, including spurring construction of rental homes and the opening of additional businesses in the area. ASL has become a success story for the concept of higher education as an economic development tool.〔 The school has brought in $12 million per year to the local economy. ASL's economic success spurred the conception and implementation of the Appalachian College of Pharmacy (formerly University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy), which was founded in 2003 and opened its doors in 2005.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Open House )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Appalachian School of Law」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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