Charleston School of Law is a 501(c)(3). Why Should Students Care?

Charleston School of Law President J. Edward Bell III arrived on campus in October 2015 with a dream: to transition the Law School from for-profit to 501(c)(3) status.

Just over a decade later, that dream was realized when the American Bar Association’s Council on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar acquiesced to the transition to new ownership under the direction of Charleston School of Law Foundation as a 501(c)(3).

“This change will allow us even greater opportunities to build on the successes we have achieved,” said President Bell. “We have grown our reputation nationally, and Charleston Law will continue to make tremendous progress for the betterment of our students and our community.”

Here’s what that looks like in practice.

Deeper investment in experiential learning

Charleston Law is nationally recognized for its mission, Pro Bono Populi — “to serve the greater good.” Experiential learning makes that mission tangible: clinical experiences, externship partnerships, moot court experiences, and hands-on faculty mentorship. As a 501(c)(3), the Law School can shift more of its resources directly into these programs at the core of the student experience.

That investment is already visible on campus. Last spring and again this fall, the Public Policy Institute is placing student research fellows with three South Carolina nonprofits — Sustain SC, Able SC, and the Lowcountry Food Bank — to research policy challenges spanning energy development, healthcare access, and food insecurity. It’s Pro Bono Populi in action made possible by a Law School now structured to reinvest in exactly this kind of work

Roots in a legal community built for the long term

Being embedded in Charleston isn’t incidental to the Charleston Law experience — it’s part of what makes the school distinctive. The 501(c)(3) transition enables the Law School to pursue deeper partnerships to provide students with networking, mentorship, and job placement opportunities both during law school and after graduation.

Faculty investment, now structural too

Charleston Law is also renowned for its faculty excellence and recognized by The Princeton Review for excellence in teaching. When the status changed to 501(c)(3), it also enhanced what already mattered most in the classroom: experienced faculty invested in student success, now backed by a funding model built around that same priority.”

“We are now celebrating the long-awaited dream of converting to a 501(c)(3),” said Dean Jonathan A. Marcantel. “The faculty, administration, students, and I could not be more excited for the future of Charleston Law.”

The Bottom Line

The 501(c)(3) transition is structural, but its purpose is simple: it removes profit as a competing incentive and reinvests in students instead. It won’t change Charleston Law’s mission — it strengthens it.