Bar Exams, Law Schools

California Bar Exam Results By Law School (2016)

Yikes! Graduates from some schools did really poorly on the exam.

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Green California Road Sign with Dramatic Clouds and Sky.Shocking results from the July 2016 administration of the California bar exam were released on November 18, 2016. Given the disappointing overall pass rate, people have been wondering about the pass rates by law school ever since.

The only information we’ve had until now — aside from a disclosure from UC Hastings Law that its pass rate for first-time takers was a mere 51 percent — has been the overall, frighteningly low pass rate of 43 percent. We also knew the overall pass rates for first-time takers who attended ABA-accredited law schools, both in-state (62 percent) and out-of-state (60 percent).

One month has passed, and now we know all of the bar exam pass rates for California law schools, only because of the intrepid reporting of The Recorder. This year is the first time in history that the State Bar of California has refused to publicly publish bar exam results by law school. One wonders why the Bar decided to do such a thing.

Which in-state law schools did the best on the test, and which schools did the worst?

Congratulations go out once again to Stanford Law, which has claimed the number-one pass rate for first-time takers for two years in a row, with 91 percent of its graduates passing the exam. Second-place honors go to USC (again), with an 88 percent pass rate for first-timers. Well done! But how did everyone else do?

Here’s a list we’ve created of pass rates for first-time takers on the July 2016 administration of the exam for all 21 ABA-accredited California law schools:

  • Stanford: 91 percent
  • USC: 88 percent
  • UC Berkeley: 84 percent
  • UCLA: 82 percent
  • UC Irvine: 81 percent
  • Loyola (LA): 72 percent
  • UC Davis: 72 percent
  • San Diego: 71 percent
  • Pepperdine: 70 percent
  • Santa Clara: 66 percent
  • STATEWIDE AVERAGE: 62 PERCENT
  • California Western: 61 percent
  • McGeorge: 61 percent
  • Chapman: 57 percent
  • UC Hastings: 51 percent
  • Western State: 41 percent
  • Southwestern: 38 percent
  • San Francisco: 36 percent
  • Golden Gate: 31 percent
  • La Verne: 31 percent
  • Thomas Jefferson: 31 percent
  • Whittier: 22 percent

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Eleven law schools fell below the statewide average pass rate for first-time takers in July 2016, while only nine law schools fell below this bar in July 2015. New to this segment of the list are McGeorge (69.9 percent pass rate for first-time takers in July 2015) and Chapman (71.2 percent pass rate for first-time takers in July 2015).

So our readers could see just how poorly some law schools did in July 2016 compared to July 2015, we created this list of year over year, percentage point increases and decreases in pass rates by law school. As you can see, some schools experienced “normal” fluctuations of just a few percentage points, but other schools suffered greatly:

  • Stanford: Pass rate increased by 2.2 percentage points
  • USC: Pass rate increased by 1.3 percentage points
  • Pepperdine: Pass rate increased by 1.3 percentage points
  • UC Irvine: Pass rate increased by 1.2 percentage points
  • California Western: Pass rate increased by 1.1 percentage points
  • La Verne: Pass rate decreased by 22.3 percentage points
  • Thomas Jefferson: Pass rate deceased by 16.7 percentage points
  • UC Hastings: Pass rate decreased by 16.5 percentage points
  • Whittier: Pass rate decreased by 15.2 percentage points
  • Western State: Pass rate decreased by 14.6 percentage points
  • Chapman: Pass rate decreased by 14.2 percentage points
  • Southwestern: Pass rate decreased by 12.6 percentage points
  • San Francisco: Pass rate decreased by 11.4 percentage points
  • McGeorge: Pass rate decreased by 8.9 percentage points
  • Golden Gate: Pass rate decreased by 8.3 percentage points
  • Loyola (LA): Pass rate decreased by 4.6 percentage points
  • UCLA: Pass rate decreased by 3.4 percentage points
  • Santa Clara: Pass rate decreased by 3.3 percentage points
  • UC Davis: Pass rate decreased by 2.3 percentage points
  • San Diego: Pass rate decreased by 1 percentage points
  • UC Berkeley: Pass rate decreased by 0.8 percentage points

Only five law schools saw at least 75 percent of their graduates pass the July bar exam, a new benchmark proposed by the ABA for remaining in good standing as far as accreditation is concerned. Other schools could be in trouble. From The Recorder:

First-time and repeat test-takers from UC-Irvine, UCLA, Stanford, University of Southern California and UC-Berkeley met or passed the 75 percent rate, according to records provided by the State Bar to The Recorder. Seven other schools, including McGeorge [California Western, Loyola (LA), Pepperdine, San Diego, Santa Clara, and UC-Davis], had first-time pass rates that ranged from 61 percent to 72 percent, suggesting that their graduates may be able to meet the ABA’s proposed pass threshold within two years.

The nine remaining schools had pass rates below 57 percent. At some campuses, less than one-third of exam-takers passed the bar.

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Those nine law schools are Chapman, Golden Gate, La Verne, San Francisco, Southwestern, Thomas Jefferson, UC Hastings, Western State, and Whittier. What is to be done for these law schools? Do the California bar examiners need to be examined themselves, as recently proposed here on Above the Law?

What are your thoughts on the bar passage rates for California’s law schools? Feel free to contact us by email, by text message (646-820-8477), or by tweet (@ATLblog).

(Flip to the next page to see July 2016 bar pass data for all California law schools.)

Earlier: California’s Bar Exam Passage Rate Reaches 32-Year Low
Who’s To Blame For School’s ‘Horrific’ Bar Results? Maybe The California Bar Examiners.
Thoughts From Dean Vik Amar On The ABA’s Proposed Tightening Of Bar Pass Standards

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. She’d love to hear from you, so feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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