Law Schools

More Bar Exam Results Are Out, And They're Not Pretty

You'll be shocked by the school that did the worst on this state's test.

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The results from Florida’s administration of the February 2018 bar exam are out, and they leave much to be desired. In fact, the passage rate on Florida’s winter bar is now at its lowest point since… well, last year’s February exam when the overall passage rate for first-time takers was 57.7 percent, which was the worst performance the state had seen since the February 2009 exam (and possibly even earlier, but that is the final date for which scores are listed on the Florida Board of Bar Examiners website).  Florida’s overall passage rate for first-time takers was 57.9 percent, and some law schools posted passage rates that hovered around or just above the 50 percent mark. Three law schools’ passage rates were far, far lower than that.

Which schools performed the best, and which schools performed the worst?

Here are the results for all Florida law schools for the February 2018 exam:

As you can see, Florida International and Ave Maria blew away the competition, with passage rates of 85.0 percent and 84.6 percent, respectively. Congratulations to graduates of both law schools — especially graduates of Ave Maria for their stellar performance. Last February, the school’s passage rate for first-time takers was 57.9 percent, so this is an incredible improvement. Florida State (76.7 percent) was in third place, and Florida Coastal (62.1 percent) pulled off a surprising fourth-place finish after coming in dead last in February 2017. Excellent work! On the flip side of the coin, hovering around or below a 50 percent passage rate are Stetson (56 percent), Miami (56 percent), Nova Southeastern (50 percent), and Barry (41 percent).

Three schools had passage rates in the 30 percent range: St. Thomas (38.9 percent), Florida A&M (36.7 percent), and University of Florida (31.8 percent). Good lord, what on earth happened at Florida Law? Last February, the school’s performance was better by a measure of about 34.9 percentage points. April Martin, UF’s spokeswoman, called the results “a clear wake-up call for the entire law school.”

As usual, readers may be wondering why Cooley Law’s Tampa Bay campus is nowhere to be found on the list of Florida bar exam results. Cooley has never been listed by name on the state’s bar exam results list, even though its inaugural class graduated in 2015. Last year, the executive director of the Florida Board of Bar Examiners explained to us that Cooley Law’s results are lumped in with the results from non-Florida law schools, as it’s a campus of a law school that’s based in Michigan. The passage rate for all non-Florida law schools for the February 2018 exam was 36.6 percent, 4.7 percentage points worse than last winter. Although more recent data isn’t available, in 2017, Cooley Law’s combined first-time passage rate for the February and July administrations of the Florida bar exam was 35.44 percent. Only Michael Cohen woud be proud. Perhaps this is why the ABA is going after the school.

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Congratulations to all those who passed the Florida bar exam. For those who didn’t, don’t let it get you down too much — there’s always July. Better luck next time.

FIU Is No. 1 on Bar Exam Passage [Daily Business Review]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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