American Bar Association / ABA, Bar Exams, Law Schools

Stats Of The Week: Evolving Standards Of Bar Passage Expectations

The latest proposal to impose bar passage standards on law schools is surprisingly tough.

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stat imageAs noted earlier this week by Kyle McEntee, the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has made at least a gesture in the direction of curbing exploitative admissions and retention practices by law schools. The Section has recommended that accredited schools be obliged to meet a new bar passage standard of 75% (within two years of graduation) and have a student attrition rate no greater than 20% (excluding transfers).

Way back in 2012, we asked ATL readers (prompted by the still currently blazing Thomas Jefferson Law School dumpster fire), whether (and how) the ABA should be holding schools accountable. Rather than focus on “attrition,” our survey asked about minimum thresholds for admitted student LSAT scores and GPAs. Reader sentiment was in favor of such minimums, and, in the case of the LSAT, overwhelmingly so.

As for bar passage standards, the 2012 ATL readership was generally — and surprisingly — more lenient than the latest ABA Section proposal: While 92% of readers felt that anything below a 50% passage rate should jeopardize accreditation, a mere one-third would have set the bar passage rate cut-off at 75% (the newly proposed standard). This might be taken as a sign that, at least in the conversation surrounding law school reform, the goalposts are moving in the right direction.

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