Law Schools

Failed Law School Somehow Musters Up 'Respectable' Bar Exam Pass Rate Before Closure

Congratulations, kind of?

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Bar exam passage rates have been plummeting across the country for the past few years, thanks in part to lax law school admissions policies, but some law schools have done much, much worse than others. In fact, one law school’s practices were so detrimental to its graduates’ futures that the American Bar Association was forced to step in and strip away its accreditation, essentially forcing the school to shutter.

The school we’re talking about is Arizona Summit Law School, a school whose numerous weaknesses and failures have been documented in these pages for years. The school will eventually close its doors, but not before its remaining students are able to graduate through teachout plans with other law schools. Now that AZ Summit is singing its swan song, were its graduates able to redeem the school’s past bar exam failures? Yes and no, but mostly no.

The results from the July 2018 administration of the Arizona bar exam are out, and it looks like the impending doom of the school’s foreclosed future somehow seemed to help its most recent graduates on the test. Prior to this past summer, nothing at all had helped Summit’s 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
July 2016 24.6 19.7
February 2017 29.5 22.7
July 2017 25.7 20.1
February 2018 31.1 19.8

According to a press release from the Supreme Court of Arizona’s Committee on Examinations, the overall pass rate for the July 2018 exam was 59.2 percent, an increase of 2.6 percentage points from last summer’s exam. What part did the Arizona Summit Law School play in this little uptick?

For the sake of comparison, take a look at this breakdown of results by in-state law schools, courtesy of the State of Arizona Committee on Examinations:

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Well, shit. First-time takers from one of Arizona Summit’s final graduating classes managed to pull their pass rate up to 52 percent. No, that’s not a typo; that’s an improvement of 26.3 percentage points over the school’s July 2017 first-time pass rate for roughly the same number of test-takers. (Alright, very roughly since 10 fewer graduates took the exam this summer, but come on, let them have their moment. This is respectable for AZ Summit — not for any other school, but you get it. It’s been like three years since the school has seen a first-time pass rate this high. Don’t worry, they’ll be embarrassed again in just a sentence or two.) Great work! But uh… only 9.58 percent of the school’s 73 retakers passed the exam. That’s trash. Unfortunately, at 20.4 percent, the school’s overall pass rate was even worse — and that’s an improvement of 0.3 percentage points over last year’s results.

This is all just sad, so incredibly sad. Money was wasted and dreams were dashed because this law school chased loan dollars and sold false hope to so many students. Legal education shouldn’t be like this, and next time the ABA needs to step in and take action much, much sooner. This school’s graduates are owed an apology.

Farewell to Arizona Summit Law School. Hey, you tried.

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked 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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