Robert Bork was an early faculty member and Antonin Scalia and Charles E. Rice consulted on the structure of the curriculum.

[3] Faculty and administrators are required to make a profession of faith, and vow to follow Catholic teachings, the Magisterium and the Holy See.

Following a purge by Monaghan of opposing administration and faculty members,[6][7] the school moved from Ann Arbor to Florida in 2009.

[20] The school is a converted former retirement community in Vineyards that it initially leased, and later purchased, from Ave Maria University.

[21] The law library was converted from the community center, with a large reading room developed from the central auditorium and with activity areas repurposed to hold the collections.

[27] Ave Maria touts its perennial rankings as the "most conservative" and "most devout" law school in the US by surveys such as The Princeton Review and PreLaw Magazine.

[29][30] The school said its low asset-to-debt ratio was "typical of recently founded institutions" and "represents no change in our fiscal health and should not be cause for concern".

[31] In 2010, Ave Maria's Dean Milhizer stated that the school's finances were very strong and its fundraising results were improving.