A Call for Transparency about the Bar Exam Results by Law Schools or the State Board of Bar Examiners

In choosing a law school, a vital consideration for a law student must be the bar exam rate of the law school. If a law student chooses to go to a law school that struggles with its bar exam passage rate, then the likelihood of passing the bar for that student decreases when it becomes his/her turn 3 years later. Conversely, the higher the bar passage rate for your school, the chances of you passing the exam is increased.

Some law schools use its bar passage rate as a marketing tool. For example, Michigan State University, after scoring first on the July 2009 Michigan bar exam, immediately posted its numbers on its website. Other law schools obscure or hide its numbers, hoping the law school won’t be called out for a low bar passage rate. Still others schools, not only hide its numbers but claim the bar exam passage rate is actually higher than it is. For example, FAMU COL routinely scores only 50% on its bar, but, unbelievably, tells its students and the public that its overall bar pass rate is 77% when all statistics show that repeat takers normally do more poorly than first time takers on the bar. In fact, FAMU COL’s overall rate is closer to 37%.

Regardless, it is incumbent upon all law schools to practice transparency when it comes to its bar passage rate. If the school won’t publish its bar passage rate, then the state must publish it.

Let the public, the potential law students and the students at the school have all information available as to the school’s bar exam passage rate.

For repeat bar takers in Florida and California, please note that Bar Professors is offering a tutorial course for February 2010.