Bar Exam

Schools add bar exam class to curriculum and find success

Bar exam passage rates have declined nationwide recently, but there are success stories even in this climate of sinking scores.

Apr 1, 2016 1:40 AM CDT

Multistate Bar Exam average score falls to 33-year low

The mean scaled score on the February administration of the Multistate Bar Examination fell to 135, down 1.2 points from the previous year and the lowest average score on a February administration of the test since 1983. The number of test-takers was up 4 percent from last year, from 22,396…

Mar 31, 2016 2:53 PM CDT

Legal Ed Section’s council proposes tighter bar-passage requirement for law school accreditation

The governing council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has tentatively approved a proposal that would tighten and simplify the bar passage requirement in the law school accreditation standards. Under the proposal (PDF), a law school would have to show that at least 75…

Mar 16, 2016 11:40 AM CDT

Faced with declining bar pass rates, Oklahoma changes the exam grading

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has reacted to a decline in bar pass rates with a change in bar exam scoring. The change is an apparent effort to make bar passage easier, Above the Law reports. The article notes that pass rates in the state have dropped from 83 percent in…

Mar 9, 2016 7:21 AM CST

Once living in US illegally, immigrant now looks forward to paying $50K in taxes on law practice

After many years of living in the United States without legal permission, a California attorney admitted in 2014 after state lawmakers passed a bill allowing him to join the state bar is looking forward to paying U.S. taxes on his new law practice. The tally: Not quite $42,000 in federal…

Feb 25, 2016 2:50 PM CST

Do you think there should be an LSAT cutoff score for law school admission?

Last month, we noted that data shows that lower LSAT scores and declining bar-pass rates have been going hand-in-hand in recent years. Jerry Organ, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis who looked at the score data, anticipates a continued decline in median…

Feb 24, 2016 12:25 PM CST

ABA committee recommends tougher, simpler bar passage accreditation standard

An ABA committee has voted to recommend the adoption of a tougher but simpler bar passage requirement in the law school accreditation standards. Under the proposed new standard (PDF), approved Friday by the Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar’s Standards Review Committee, a law school would have…

Feb 16, 2016 3:25 PM CST

Penalized for writing bar exam after it ended, woman passed but had admission delayed

Observed by fellow applicants continuing to write after time was called during the Multistate Bar Exam portion of the July 2014 bar exam in Ohio, a 2013 law graduate of Case Western Reserve University faced a double whammy. After an inquiry, the Board of Bar Examiners imposed a 16.7 percent…

Feb 12, 2016 3:55 PM CST

Tougher, simpler bar-passage requirements for law schools to be considered by ABA committee

An ABA committee on Friday will take up a proposal that would toughen—and greatly simplify—the bar passage requirements of the law school accreditation standards. Under the proposal, a law school would have to demonstrate that 75 percent of its graduates who took a bar exam within two years of their…

Feb 11, 2016 10:45 AM CST

Should all states adopt the Uniform Bar Examination?

In an order (PDF) filed last week, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals confirmed that it will begin administering the Uniform Bar Exam this summer, Above the Law reported. According to the National Conference of Bar Examiners, D.C. joins 18 other states that offer the exam, which is a…

Feb 10, 2016 11:35 AM CST

Still on parole when admitted to practice, lawyer hopes to help others facing hefty prison terms

Back around the turn of the century, David Harris would have seemed an unlikely lawyer. He served a seven-year prison term for a series of armed robberies committed in 1997, and was still on parole when he was licensed to practice law in Tennessee in 2013. But the state does…

Feb 8, 2016 4:55 PM CST

Diversity and inclusion will be major themes at 2016 ABA Midyear Meeting

After a year when race and bias have been important parts of the national conversation—and when a woman of color is serving as ABA president for the first time—diversity and inclusion will be major topics at the ABA Midyear Meeting. The meeting is slated to start Thursday in San Diego.…

Feb 4, 2016 8:15 AM CST

After years of legal battle, Mexican immigrant becomes a New York lawyer

Cesar Vargas, brought to this country from Mexico as a 5-year-old, has lived in the U.S. without documentation for most of his life. Nonetheless, he graduated from college and law school and, in 2011, passed the New York bar exam. And, on Wednesday, after years of legal battle, largely because…

Feb 3, 2016 2:05 PM CST

LSAT profiles of current law students signal more troubles ahead; has low point been reached?

The decline in bar-exam scores and bar-pass rates is likely to continue through 2018, given the LSAT profiles of current law students, according to a law professor who has examined the data. However, a turnaround could be ahead for those graduating after that date, says Jerry Organ, a law professor…

Jan 25, 2016 5:45 AM CST

ABA posts law school consumer info for 2015

Law school consumer information for the entering class of 2015 is now available on the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar’s website, the section said in a press release Wednesday. The information at the section’s website comes from the annual questionnaires ABA-approved law schools are required…

Dec 16, 2015 4:33 PM CST