Appalachian School of Law, Grundy

The Appalachian School of Law is an ABA-approved private law school on a four building campus in Grundy, Virginia, a small town near the convergence of Virginia, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The school offers a three-year Juris Doctor degree, and enrolls approximately 128 full-time students. The law school was founded in 1994 and admitted its first class of students in August 1997. ASL was started and brought to Buchanan County, Virginia as a tool of economic development for the region. ASL emphasizes professional responsibility and alternative dispute resolution in its curriculum and requires students to complete 25 hours of community service per semester in order to graduate. Each student is also required to complete an externship before graduation. According to ASL's 2021 ABA-required disclosures, 31% of the Class of 2020 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation. ASL was also the site of a triple homicide that took place on January 16, 2002. ()