The American Bar Association has given the green light to the Ave Maria School of Law to proceed with a controversial relocation to Florida, The National Law Journal reported today.

The Roman Catholic law school came under fire from faculty members over its plan to move from Ann Arbor, Mich., to Naples, Fla. Faculty members who opposed the move filed a formal complaint with the bar association and voted no confidence in the school’s dean at the time, Bernard Dobranski, who has since left.

A big question was whether the bar association would “acquiesce” to the move, a necessary step for the school to retain full accreditation. With the bar association’s green light, the school can now apply for a license from the Florida Department of Education that will allow it to grant degrees.

Several professors left the law school, and in 2007 the bar association warned the school that it did not appear to have taken the steps needed to attract and retain qualified faculty members. The bar group’s change of heart was welcome news to the school’s founder.

“We are very excited and grateful to receive this news from the ABA, which is obviously a crucial step in our relocation process,” said Thomas S. Monaghan, a philanthropist who also founded Domino’s Pizza.

The school originally planned to move into a Catholic-oriented planned community in Florida that had been largely dreamed up by Mr. Monaghan. That plan proved too expensive, so the law school decided instead to move into existing facilities in Naples in early July. —Katherine Mangan