Florida Coastal School of Law

The law school's Jacksonville campus is located next to Baymeadows Lake and about 8.4 miles from downtown Jacksonville. The law school is about 8.6 miles from the Downtown Courthouse of Duval County, 8.9 miles from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Federal Courthouse) and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (both housed in the Bryan Simpson United States Courthouse).

Jacksonville is the most populated city in Florida, but does not seem to have a large legal community. There are about 8 large law firms (250+ attorneys) and 19 medium sized firms (50 - 249 attorneys) in the city. There are almost 200 alumni practicing in the area. Therefore, it seems that most alumni do not practice in the area and instead choose to move elsewhere. The school is in a good area as students can attend Federal and State court hearings, but it does not seem like a great area to practice as it has a small legal community for its size. It seems very inexpensive to live in the area (it is not uncommon to see 1 bedroom/1 bath apartments for less than $500 per mo.) especially for an area so close to the beach.

	Florida Coastal School of Law
Public or Private	Private
Tuition	$29,362
Acceptance Rate	52.9%
State Bar Pass Rate	Florida, July 2008 82.3% (Avg. Bar pass rate for Florida, 82.5%)
Employment Rate after 9 mos. from Graduation	88.1%
Employment Rate at Graduation	Not made available
Average Salary for Graduates in the Private Sector	$48,500
Student Body Population	1231
LSAT score bottom 25th percentile of incoming class	149
LSAT score top 25th percentile of incoming class	154
Median LSAT of incoming class	152
Bottom 25th percentile of incoming class undergraduate GPA (UGPA)	2.81
Top 25th percentile of incoming class UGPA	3.47
Median UGPA	3.14

The Florida Coastal School of Law is located in Jacksonville, Florida. The law school is a for profit private school founded in 1996 by InfiLaw Corp who also own the Phoenix School of Law and the Charlotte School of Law. The school has three legal centers and programs: The Center for Law and Sports, The American and Carribean Law Initiative (where students work on legal issues with Carribean attorney generals), and the Northeast Florida Environmental Summit. As new as the school is, it had doen well in employment Rates (although the average salary is low) and bar passage rates.

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The law school uses a standard alphabetical grading system with a correlating 4.0 scale GPA. The law school requires most first semester grades to comply the following curve: 15-25% of the course grades must fall within the B+ to A range; 50-70% of the course grades must fall within the C to B range; and 15-25% of the course grades must fall within the F to C- range. The mean for the first semester course grades must be a 2.50 with an allowable deviation of .10. Meaning the school has about a C average for the first semester courses.

For almost all of the other courses (second semester and beyond) the grades must comply with the following curve: 20-30% of the course grades must fall within the B+ to A range; 55-75% of the course grades must fall within the C to B range; 5-15% of the course grades must fall within the F to C- range. The mean for the course grades must be a 2.70 with an alloable deviation of .10. Meaning for second semester and upper division courses the school has about a C+ average.

The school places students on academic probation if they earn below a 1.40 GPA the first semester, or a 1.99 or below after the second semester. Students must also earn at least a 2.0 GPA after the third semester or they will be academically dismissed.

Overall it seems like the school has a tough grading curve with most courses having a C to C+ curve. As most students will graduate within this grade range they may find it difficult to earn associate positons. However, it seems the school's graduates become employed at a relatively high rate although they are not being paid very high wages. Therefore, it is very possible they are taking positions at lower wages so they will not be unemployed as they find it extemely difficult to obtain a position with a salary more commensurate with what is expected for an attorney in the private sector.

The InfiLaw system is the company that owns the Florida Coastal School of Law as well as the Phoenix School of Law and the Charlotte School of Law. All three of the law schools are considered fourth tier caliber schools and Florida Coastal is the oldest of all the instituions owned by InfiLaw. The CEO of the company is Rick Inatome who has a degree in economics from Michigan State University. The company's website asserts he took American Speedy Printing out of bankruptcy and made it into one of the most profitable printing chains in the United States. It seems that this company is run by a person who is able to turn a profit even in some arenas that are considered economic dinosaurs. Therefore, this company is in the education business to make a profit. In fact the Phoneix school recently reported a 97% pass rate for the Arizona bar exam and Florida Coastal has a very high bar pass and employment rate. Certainly it is not morally reprehensible to earn a profit, in fact it seems like an ethical means to make a profit, but you should have this information and keep it in mind when considering these law schools.