Times have been tumultuous for Ave Maria Law School. There's been a fair amount of infighting, which has led to a lot of faculty attrition.

But today brings happy news for the embattled institution. From Acting Dean Eugene Milhizer, via Fumare:

From: Eugene R. Milhizer
Sent: Wed 7/2/2008 12:01 PM
To: All Law System Distribution; All Alumni
Subject: Resolution of ABA Complaint

Dear Law School Community,

I am writing to pass on some very good news from the American Bar Association. As you may know, some time ago several members of the Ave Maria Law School faculty filed a complaint with the Accreditation Committee of the ABA. That complaint triggered a proceeding to determine the school's compliance with Standard 405(a), which provides that "[a] law school shall establish and maintain conditions adequate to attract and retain a competent faculty." On Monday I received notification that this proceeding has been terminated. The Committee concluded that the school is in compliance with Standard 405(a) and informed us that we remain on the list of law schools approved by the ABA.

You can read the rest of the email over here (PDF).

Ave Maria isn't out of the woods just yet; it's still in the process of obtaining the ABA's "acquiescence" to the school's plan to relocate to Florida. But the termination of the Standard 405(a) proceeding is still undoubtedly good news for the school. Congratulations to AMLS on the ABA's favorable ruling.

Resolution of ABA Complaint (PDF) [Ave Maria School of Law]
Milhizer Email Re: ABA Complaint Resolved, AMSL in Compliance with ABA Standards [Fumare]

We were tempted to give you a scandalous photo of a Catholic schoolgirl with this post, but we thought a heavenly Will Ferrell was funnier. Now, on to Catholic School News.

We've been following the trials and tribulations of Ave Maria School of Law for some time now. The school even has its own category tag on ATL.

In the latest news, reported by Julie Kay in the National Law Journal, more than a dozen faculty members have left since the February 2007 decision to move the school from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Ave Maria, Florida (a town founded by Domino's founder and school head Thomas Monaghan):

The brain drain at the school has been devastating, [tenured professor Richard Myers] said.

"There were 20 full-time people on the faculty a year-and-a-half ago," he said. "Next year there will be five of that group left teaching full-time. That's a dramatic change."

The law school has been actively trying to recruit new teachers, Myers said, with only limited success. The school recently hired a tax professor and a visiting professor, he said.

Prospective law school students may want to steer clear until Ave Maria gets back on track. The extensive list of the departed faculty members is available below the fold.

In other Catholic law school news, we reported earlier this month on St. Thomas's decision not to let students complete their pro bono requirement at organizations with missions that conflict with Catholic values. If you choose to go to a Catholic school for its ranking and not its religious mission, don't expect sympathy if you gripe to your friends about the school imposing its values on you. In our poll, over 57% of the 1,726 voters supported St. Thomas's decision.

More discussion, after the jump.

We thought the whole point of Ave Maria Law School, founded by Domino's pizza founder Thomas Monaghan, was that with enough money, you can do whatever you want. E.g., establish a very conservative, Catholic law school, and not care if the liberal legal academy raises its eyebrows -- 'cause you could buy and sell them, several times over.

So doesn't it defeat the whole point if Ave Maria requires funding from sources beyond Monaghan's pile of pizza dough? From Julie Kay's article in the National Law Journal:

Got $20 million? If so, you could have a law school building named after you.

Ave Maria School of Law is selling naming rights to the new law school facility it's building in southwest Florida.

"We'd like to find someone who would want the opportunity to have their name associated with the school, to help us with the construction costs," said Dean Bernard Dobranski. He said the school is rapidly moving forward with its controversial plan to relocate from Ann Arbor, Mich., to Ave Maria, Fla., and has even obtained architectural renderings of the new school.

Ave Maria is already in turmoil: controversy over its move from Michigan to Florida, lawsuits filed by three professors who claim they were wrongfully terminated, an ongoing investigation by the American Bar Association. A suggestion that Tom Monaghan's coffers are not infinite could not come at a worse time.

Meanwhile, in other Domino's news, they're trying to return to the glory days of their 30-minute delivery guarantee -- without getting sued. Delivering delicious pizza in under half an hour is a noble mission. We wish them the best of luck.

P.S. Tom Monaghan no longer owns the pizza chain. He sold his controlling interest to Bain Capital in 1998 for about a billion dollars, which he plowed into launching Ave Maria University.

Ave Maria still looks to move, puts name on block [National Law Journal]
Domino's Pizza and the Law [WSJ Law Blog]
Will a Twist on an Old Vow Deliver for Domino's Pizza? [Wall Street Journal]

* Holy Lawsuit, Batman! Professors sue Ave Maria. [AveWatch.org]

* TMI indeed; spare us talk of that burning sensation. Just say you have a doctor's appointment, and leave it at that. [Nasty, Brutish & Short]

* Just because you're a 46-year-old man who has never been married doesn't mean you're gay. Plamegate prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald -- whom we met earlier this month, btw -- is engaged. Congrats, Pat! [WSJ Law Blog]

* Milberg Weiss and the Democrats: politics makes for not-so-strange bedfellows. [Overlawyered; Overlawyered]

* Some undergraduates earn cash by selling their class notes online. How long before this trend takes hold in law schools? [Conglomerate]

* Who says Yale Law grads can't be funny? [Wonkette]

Earlier today, we posted the first installment of our recent interview with Dean Bernard Dobranski, of Ave Maria School of Law. You can access that part of the write-up, which includes background on current controversies at Ave Maria, by clicking here.

Now we bring you the second half of the interview. It appears after the jump.

We officially declare today to be Ave Maria School of Law Day here at ATL.

This morning, we wrote about a dubious recusal motion, seeking recusal of a judge who hired Ave Maria graduates as law clerks. And now we bring you more detailed discussion about the relatively new, Catholic law school, founded in 2000 by Domino's Pizza mogul Tom Monaghan.

We're not the only folks these days who are writing about Ave Maria School of Law, which has been embroiled in controversy for months now. The law school has been the subject of extensive (and generally unflattering) discussion, on such blogs as Fumare, Mirror of Justice, and AveWatch. The story has been picked up by online news sources such as Inside Higher Ed and the WSJ Law Blog.

So what's the fuss all about? It's a long and tortured history, but here's the short version:

(1) the school is scheduled to move in 2009 to the new town of Ave Maria, Florida (the home of Ave Maria University, located outside Naples, FL, and described as "a sort of utopia for devout Catholics and others");

(2) a number of faculty members vigorously oppose the move; and

(3) things have gotten ugly between these faculty members and the law school's administration, led by Dean Bernard Dobranski.

In a recent telephone interview with ATL, Dean Dobranski offered his side of the story. You can check out our interview with him after the jump.