American Bar Association / ABA, Bar Exams, Law Schools

The ABA Takes First Step To Tighten Bar Pass Standards

Law schools soon won’t be able to hide from a clear and enforceable bar pass standard.

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Last Friday, the Council for the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar made important progress towards holding law schools accountable for dangerous admissions and retention policies.

As I mentioned last week, the Standards Review Committee was in a holding pattern on the minimum bar passage standard, Standard 316. Without guidance from the Council over the past few months, the SRC left Standard 316 off of its February agenda. The Council has now provided guidance by adding Standard 316 and related standards to the SRC agenda.

The SRC will prepare a revised Standard 316 for the Council to consider at its March meeting. (The current Standard is riddled with loopholes.) The Council also asked the SRC to clarify the relationship between Standard 501, the non-exploitation standard, and Standard 316. Additionally, the Council asked the SRC to examine new transparency measures through Standard 509, consistent with comments made by Justice Berch, the chair of the Council, to the New York Times in October.

I’d like law schools to be up-front, telling students that your indicators say you may not have what it takes to pass the bar.

The Council easily could have deferred the SRC’s review of Standards 316, 501, and 509 to the following SRC committee meeting. The February SRC meeting already had a full slate. Instead, the Council unanimously voted to send the standards related to bar passage outcomes for immediate review, going so far as to ask the SRC to elevate the review to the “highest priority.”

In her closing remarks, Justice Berch discussed the opportunity that national news on admissions standards, bar passage rates, and student debt affords the Council in its efforts to regulate the right things. Her goal: accrediting standards that are “clear and enforceable, to the extent that they can be.”

Despite persistent (and usually justified) criticism of the ABA, the ABA has made monumental improvements to the standards over the past few years. Standard 316 is among the few standards that the ABA has been unable to address. Similar political forces that challenge changes to Standard 316 will persist, but the narrative has changed, making it easier for the Council to close the loopholes that make the current Standard 316 an unenforceable joke.

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While the ABA still needs to enforce Standard 501, the process is now underway to put a revised Standard 316 in effect by August 2016. Law schools hoping to hide behind the difficulty of enforcing Standard 501 won’t be able to hide from a clear and enforceable Standard 316.

Kyle McEntee is the executive director of Law School Transparency, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to make entry to the legal profession more transparent, affordable, and fair. LST publishes the LST Reports and produces I Am The Law, a podcast about law jobs. You can follow him on Twitter @kpmcentee and@LSTupdates.

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