Bar Exams, Law Schools

Who Is To Blame For The Dumbing Of The Legal Profession?

What's responsible for the dumbing down of America's lawyers? Spoiler alert -- law schools are to blame.

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There’s a new piece in Bloomberg Business that is sure to become cocktail party fodder in legal circles for months to come. The piece posits that there is a dumbing down of America’s lawyers, and — spoiler alert — law schools are to blame.

At least that is the opinion of Erica Moeser, who is the head of the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) (ironically Moeser never sat for the bar exam, as it not required for local graduates in Wisconsin). Last year, after the debacle that was Barghazi faded, it quickly became obvious that the results of the July 2014 exam were bad. Not just like a little dip in passage rates, but huge drops all around the country:

In Idaho, bar pass rates dropped 15 percentage points, from 80 percent to 65 percent. In Delaware, Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, and Texas, scores dropped 9 percentage points or more. By the time all the states published their numbers, it was clear that the July exam had been a disaster everywhere. Scores on the multiple-choice part of the test registered their largest single-year drop in the four-decade history of the test.

That’s not good for business — especially if you’re the dean of a non-T14 law school. And Moeser made it clear exactly where she thought the blame should go.

Panic swept the bottom half of American law schools, all of which are ranked partly on the basis of their ability to get their graduates into the profession. Moeser sent a letter to law school deans. She outlined future changes to the exam and how to prepare for them. Then she made a hard turn to the July exam. “The group that sat in July 2014 was less able than the group that sat in July 2013,” she wrote. It’s not us, Moeser was essentially saying. It’s you.

Moeser certainly succeeded in stirring up a hornet’s nest. While she apologized for the harsh language used in her letter, she hasn’t backed away from the core of her message.

Going to law school used to be a great deal, and would increase your job prospects. But then the bottom fell out of the market in 2008. Suddenly a J.D. meant you’d have a mountain of student loans, with no great job prospects. Enrollment in law schools dropped. Law schools, in a desperate (though possibly futile) attempt to keep their business model going, have accepted students with grades that would have been roundly rejected 5 or so years earlier. All of which culminated in the short-lived experiment of letting students into law school who did not even take the LSAT. That inescapable fact is what Moeser believes is the primary downward drag on bar passage rates:

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Moeser maintains the reason so many students are failing is that they are less prepared. “You can squawk loud and long about what’s happening,” Moeser says, “but you’ve got to look at who your student body is.”

Burn. And the “recovery” of the legal market that law schools are wishin’ and hopin’ for still hasn’t manifested itself.

Law schools haven’t taken these insults lying down. They’ve (well, at least a consortium of 79 law schools generally in the bottom of the rankings) gone on the offensive, calling the bar exam process “broken” and asking for an investigation of “the integrity and fairness of the July 2014 exam.”

Time will tell the most accurate tale. Results of the July 2015 exam are expected beginning in September, and this year, there were no software malfunctions to distract and/or act as a scapegoat for exam results. Moeser has already placed her bets on where scores will go:

Moeser expects the reckoning to continue. “I would anticipate the scores will drop again, if I had to guess,” she says, her mouth drawing a straight line across her face. “I don’t anticipate a rebound.”

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And that’s nothing but bad news for the folks with $120,000+ in newly minted educational debt.

Are Lawyers Getting Dumber? [Bloomberg Businessweek]

Earlier: The Biggest Bar Exam Disaster Ever? ExamSoft Makes Everyone’s Life Hard
Killing The LSAT Is A Bad Deal For Students
Which Law School’s Enrollment Has Dropped By More Than 50 Percent?
This Law School’s Enrollment Is Down By Almost 80 Percent
Is A Law School Recovery Just Around The Corner?
When Bar Scores Plummet, Who Will Examine The Examiners?
Law School Applications Plummet
Disgruntled Grad Spreads Insane Tale Of Law School Debt Woes — Via Hundreds Of Windshield Flyers
Graduate Of Elite Law School Forced To Live Off Welfare Due To Terrible State Of Job Market

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