CSOL “Savior” Makes His Move

WESTBROOK CREATES NON-PROFIT TO STALK LAW SCHOOL SALE

By FITSNews  || This website has just begun to explore the rampant self-interest of Charleston School of Law (CSOL) “savior” Ed Westbrook.  For years we were led to believe he was a good guy with the best interests of the institution and its students and alumni at heart, but our research of late has uncovered many hidden motivations.

For those unfamiliar with Westbrook (a minority owner of the school), he’s the Lowcountry lawyer who’s been working to block the sale of CSOL to Infilaw – a private company this website has frequently criticized.  But whatever one thinks of Infilaw, the company has negotiated a deal with CSOL’s owners to purchase the institution – and we’ve consistently said this deal should be honored by state regulators.

In fact these regulators have no authority not  to honor the deal … as their role is confined to licensing, not accreditation.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: State government has no business blocking this sale, period.

Anyway, as part of Westbrook’s ongoing bid to disrupt the deal – which is needlessly occupying the time and attention of South Carolina’s legislature and higher education bureaucracy – he has created a new non-profit entity which he contends can purchase the law school in the event the Infilaw deal falls through.

In other words, in the event he can kill it … 

The organization – dubbed the Law School Transition Eleemosynary Corporation – consists of retired academics and the likes of Bart Daniel, one of suspended S.C. Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell’s lawyers.

What is the group’s function?  Nothing … as far as we can tell, other than stalking the CSOL-Infilaw deal.

We haven’t seen this group’s articles of incorporation, but we’re told it includes multiple references that underscore its own impotence in the event the CSOL-Infilaw deal goes through as planned.  And even if it doesn’t, what changes?  With whom, exactly, does Westbrook think his merry band of “non-profiteers” is going to negotiate?

Because it’s abundantly clear CSOL’s founders – i.e. the ones who have already negotiated the sale of an asset over which they have a controlling interest – aren’t going to cut a deal with him.

Westbrook knows this.  In fact, one legislative source told FITS his plan is nothing more than an attempt to sink the CSOL-Infilaw deal so that a plan to subsidize the school with tax dollars can be revived.

We have steadfastly opposed such a plan … and will continue to do so moving forward.

Our state’s higher education system needs to be privatized, not expanded.  Meanwhile the private sector needs to be permitted to operate free from the meddling of government bureaucrats and self-serving trial lawyers.