 Conversely, Hervey hinted to the St. Paul Trustees that their school could lose ABA approval if they didn't agree to move forward with the merger.In July 1956, after renewed negotiations prompted by Hervey, the Minneapolis-Minnesota College of Law (armed with provisional approval from the ABA) united with the St. Paul College of Law to become William Mitchell College of Law.The consolidated Board of Trustees selected the name to honor the St. Paul school's unofficial "first" dean, William B. Mitchell, who had been widely regarded as one of the finest U.S. jurists of the late nineteenth century.