Barry University

The law school is located in eastern Orlando on a 20 acre campus while the law school's parent university (Barry University) is located 230 miles south in Miami Shores, Florida. The law school is about 15 minutes (6.3 mi) from downtown Orlando and 45 minutes (32.8 mi) from Disney World. The campus is also about 6.4 miles from the Orange County Courthouse, which houses the State Attorney's (i.e. District Attorney) office, Public Defender's office as well as the Ninth Judicial Circuit court of Florida. The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida is about 7.0 miles away and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court is about 6.9 miles from the law school.

The Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law is the second law school within the Orlando area (Florida A&M is the other). Orlando has a population of about 230,000 and has a relatively inexpenisive cost of living e.g. a nice 1 bedroom apartment can cost about $500 per month.

Orlando has a pretty good size legal community for its population. There are approximately 8 large law firms (250+ attorneys), 23 medium sized firms (50 - 249 attorneys) in the area, and 54 smaller law firms (10-49 attorneys) in the city. There are approximatley 135 Barry University school of law alumni practicing in the country and about 123 of those practice in Florida. About 52 alumni practice in Orlando, 7 practice in Miami, and 10 in Winter Park, Florida ( an Orlando suburb).

	Barry University
Public or Private	Private
Tuition	$29,360
Acceptance Rate	55.3%
State Bar Pass Rate	Florida, July 2008 75.6% (Avg. Bar pass rate for Florida, 82.5%)
Employment Rate after 9 mos. from Graduation	80.3%
Employment Rate at Graduation	Not Available
Average Salary for Graduates in the Private Sector	$57,275
Student Body Population	536
LSAT score bottom 25th percentile of incoming class	148
LSAT score top 25th percentile of incoming class	152
Median LSAT of incoming class	150
Bottom 25th percentile of incoming class undergraduate GPA (UGPA)	2.70
Top 25th percentile of incoming class UGPA	3.30
Median UGPA	3.00

The Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law was originally founded in 1993 and is located in sunny Orlando, Florida. The law school went through some name changes from its beginning as The University of Orlando and most recently became a part of Barry University, an international Catholic university, in 1999. In 2001 the law school was denied ABA accreditation, but hired Dean Joseph Richard Hurt, the ABA's former deputy consultant on legal education tasked with accrediting law schools, and earned provisional ABA accreditation in February 2002 and full ABA accreditation in December of 2006. The law school made significant changes since its first ABA denial in 2001. For instance, the school doubled its enrollment from 2003 numbers (300 to almost 600), increased the number of faculty to about 30, and won numerous national competitions including Best Brief in the 2006 national tax law moot court competition sponsored by the Florida Bar.

The law school has a full time and part time evening program that takes 4 years to earn a Juris Doctor (J.D.). There is an in house Children and Families Clinic that allows students to become certified by the Florida Supreme Court and represent clients, including the state, in court in such matters as child delinquency, dependency, mental health, and education law.

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The law school's grading system employs a normal 4.0 scale with a corresponding letter grade i.e.:

A= 4.0
B+= 3.5
B= 3.0
C+= 2.5
C= 2.0
D+= 1.5
D= 1.0
F= 0.0

The forced grading curve for the first year requires each course to have the following grade distribution:

A and B+= 15% of the course grades

B= 25% of the course grades

C+ and C= 50% of the course grades

D+, D, and F= 10% of the course grades

Overall, for first year courses the curve is about a C to C+ as most students will receive a C+ or lower in each course. This seems pretty difficult and could affect a graduates ability to obtain an associate position.

For second and third year courses, the law school reccomends the following grading distribution to the professors (if the professor substantially deviates from the curve he or she will need to provide an explanation to the dean i.e. it is pretty much a requirement):

A and B+= 15% of the course grades

B and C+= 35% of the course grades

C and below= 50% of the course grades

Although, the upper division grading curve seems a little easier and gives the professors a little more flexibility it still seems difficult with a curve of about a C. In fact, it seems the curve is just as difficult as the first year curve as 85% of the students may receive a C+ or below.

Overall, the grading curve seems difficult and could negatively affect a graduates employment prospects as their GPA may be lower than expected.