Bar Exams, Law Schools

Bar Exam Passage Rates Plummet After Adoption Of Uniform Bar Exam

Uh-oh! What does this mean for other states that recently adopted the UBE?

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ArrowGoingDown-300x294Citing the need for keeping costs down in light of law school graduates’ heavy debt burdens and the need for the portability of law licenses considering the state of the still recovering job market, many jurisdictions adopted the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) in the past few years. The thought was that with a national exam, a passing score would make it easier for graduates to find work and practice law in other states without having to pay exorbitant testing fees. Going a step further, with state bar exam passage rates plummeting across the nation, the hope was that perhaps a national exam would enable a greater number of law school graduates to actually pass the test and put their law degrees to use.

New Mexico is one of the states that recently adopted the UBE, starting with the February 2016 exam. On that administration of the exam, the passage rate fell to 69 percent, an 11 percent decline from February 2015, when the passage rate was 80 percent. This summer, the results were even worse, with the overall passage rate falling to 64 percent, an 8 percent decline from July 2015, when the New Mexico bar exam was last administered and the passage rate was 72 percent.

New Mexico’s only law school, the New Mexico University School of Law, was hit particularly hard by the state’s adoption of the UBE. In February 2016, the school’s passage rate for first-time takers was 71 percent (down from 88 percent in February 2015 when the New Mexico bar exam was administered). In July 2016, the school’s passage rate for first-time takers was 68 percent (down from 81 percent in July 2015 when the New Mexico bar exam was administered). This is the worst UNM Law graduates have performed on the bar exam since July 2008, across 16 other administrations of the test.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, graduates of the school who failed the exam were “disproportionately minorities and women,” and although 14 Native American UNM Law graduates took the July 2016 exam, none of them passed.

In a letter sent to students and alumni by co-deans Sergio Pareja and Alfred Mathewson, information about other states that had adopted the UBE and later saw their passage rates fall was disclosed, as well as additional details on the school’s plan to improve:

[S]ome other states that adopted the test also saw pass rates drop as well. But Arizona, which adopted the test in 2012, was not one of them. And Colorado’s pass rate dropped slightly from 2012 to 2015.

In their letter, co-deans Pareja and Mathewson said the new exam will be studied to see what changes the school needs to make to boost the first-time pass rate to 80 percent by 2018. They also set a goal of having 85 percent of students pass within 18 months.

Why are the differences in passage rates between the New Mexico bar exam and the UBE so stark? It’s likely because the New Mexico essay exam largely focused on New Mexico law, and those types of questions are not present on the UBE. Subjects like Indian law and administrative law are also nowhere to be found on the UBE.

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UNM Law — a school that is ranked highly by both U.S. News & World Report and Above the Law — has been urged to “refocus its efforts on fundamentals.” Hopefully Dean Pareja’s and Mathewson’s plans will help graduates succeed in the future.

What does this mean for other states that have recently adopted the UBE, like New York? The Empire State’s first administration of the UBE took place during the July 2016 exam. Will New York test-takers see the state’s passage rates continue to decline? We suppose we’ll find out in November when the exam’s results are released.

Editorial: Uniform bar exam is not the problem, is law school? [Albuquerque Journal]
University Of New Mexico Bar Pass Rate Drops 13 Percentage Points After Adoption Of UBE; Law School Urged To ‘Refocus On Fundamentals’ [TaxProf Blog]

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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