Law School Notorious For Graduates Failing The Bar Exam Makes Passing Mock Bar Exam A Graduation Requirement
Some of the school's students may never be able to graduate....
Going to graduation? Not so fast…
A law school graduate’s ability to pass the bar exam is one of the final indicators of a successful legal education. When a law school’s graduates pass the bar exam in high numbers, it reflects well upon the institution that conferred their law degrees. When a law school’s graduates fail the bar exam in droves, it reflects extremely poorly upon the institution that conferred their law degrees, making others wonder whether the quality of the education those graduates received was truly up to snuff.
Arizona Summit Law School, a member of the InfiLaw System, is a for-profit institution whose graduates have failed the bar exam in record numbers in recent years, despite the administration’s best efforts to avoid such disasters from occurring. Those efforts allegedly include, but are not limited to, offering graduates a four-month, intensive bar preparation program with a $5,000 stipend and calling graduates the day before the exam and offering a $10,000 stipend for them to defer taking the exam.
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As you can see from the table below, nothing has worked for AZ Summit Law graduates:
| Arizona Bar Examination | First Time Pass Rate | Overall Pass Rate (includes repeaters) |
| February 2014 | 54.5 | 48.8 |
| July 2014 | 54.8 | 49.5 |
| February 2015 | 52.6 | 46.4 |
| July 2015 | 30.6 | 26.4 |
| February 2016 | 38.1 | 28.4 |
Given recent graduates’ atrocious performance on the bar exam, Arizona Summit made the completion of an in-house, pre-bar-exam prep class a graduation requirement for the classes of December 2016 and May 2017, thinking that would do the trick. Members of the administration quickly reconsidered that plan, though, when they saw that students with GPAs lower than 3.33 failed the bar exam more often than not, and realized there was a much better way to protect the school’s bar exam passage rates. Here is an excerpt from a recent email that was sent by Dean Shirley Mays (emphasis added):
In balancing your interest in keeping your fall schedule with the responsibility we have to make you bar ready before you graduate, we have reconsidered and removed the graduation requirement that December 2016 and May 2017 graduates take the pre-bar prep class. We want you to take ownership of your success and make your own informed decision based on what is best for you.
Given the importance of the next seven months, I would like to meet with each December 2016 graduate before the end of the add-drop period (Wednesday, August 31) to discuss your bar preparation plans. …
I strongly encourage each of you to take the pre-bar prep class. It will help prepare you to take the bar exam. The pre-bar prep class will have as a final a mock bar exam which will contribute significantly to your grade. Taking the mock bar exam will afford you the opportunity to receive feedback about your strengths and areas of improvement going into the bar exam. It also will give you a taste of what you will experience two months after graduation as you prepare for the February or July 2017 bar exam.
Please note, effective with the May 2017 graduates, even though taking the class is not a requirement, a passing score on a mock bar exam will be a graduation requirement.
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Arizona Summit Law no longer requires that graduates take a pre-bar prep class, but starting with the class of May 2017, students will not be able to graduate from this law school unless and until they pass a mock bar exam. Sources tell us that if would-be graduates fail the mock exam, they must take it again, and again, and again until they pass, or else they will be unable to receive a degree and register for the real bar exam.
Well, that’s one way to make it look like Arizona Summit Law School is doing something right — for itself, of course. At this rate, some of its students with GPAs below a 3.33 may never be able to graduate. What a waste of $178,263 in nondischargeable loan debt.
(Flip to the next page to see the full email from Arizona Summit Dean Shirley Mays.)
Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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