Zombie Law School Sued By Students

Could we be in for some veil piercing?

It’s a testament to how much of an absolute travesty Charlotte School of Law really was down the stretch that we’re still covering the program long after its 2017 closure. Zombie Charlotte has just gotten sued by its former students, alleging the school never prepared them to be lawyers while hoarding their tuition money.

This may sound familiar. The school was already sued by its former students and settled for a relatively paltry sum because the school’s former owners — the infamous InfiLaw — claimed poverty while simultaneously paying Paul Clement to harass the ABA for daring to regulate their clutch of troubled schools. Hmmm.

But this suit takes a slightly different tack by naming InfiLaw’s owner, the private equity firm Sterling Partners. WSOC reports:

Students claimed Sterling Partners directed the school to hide its accreditation issues and that it padded numbers about bar passage rates and job placement rates. The school is also accused of advertising services it didn’t offer. Students claim the school left them in a financial crisis.

Now comes the “piercing the corporate veil” gambit because while InfiLaw may be in financial trouble, Sterling Partners most assuredly is not, claiming to have roughly $4 billion in capital under management. Private equity firms make their nut by running wholly owned but independently incorporated entities into the ground and claiming they can’t be held responsible while pocketing the money out the door. Generally, these firms are very good about maintaining the appropriate distance to avoid any liability, but if the students’ allegations are correct, Sterling’s activities may well have crossed that line. It’s hard to imagine a company as sophisticated as Sterling would have done that. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine a company would ever invest in the desiccated corpse of legal academia known as InfiLaw in the first place, so anything’s possible I suppose.

We’ll see what really happened when and if this reaches discovery.

Former Charlotte School of Law students file new lawsuit against company that owned school [WSOC]

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Earlier: Charlotte School Of Law Is Closing ‘Effective Immediately’
Students Suing Failed For-Profit Law School Reach Shockingly Low Settlement Due To Parent Company’s Financial Straits
Good Law Schools Are All Alike; Every Bad Law School Is Bad In Its Own Way
Charlotte Law School Excels At Making Enemies Everywhere


HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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