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The pass rate on the February 2019 California bar exam was a measly 31.4 percent, so unsurprisingly the school-by-school statistics released by the State Bar on Tuesday were pretty dismal as well.
The results were likely especially disappointing for schools hoping to improve their performance in order to please the American Bar Association.
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Chief among those institutions is Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, which was recently removed from the ABA’s list of approved schools and is appealing the decision.
One reason the ABA cited in acting to yank the school’s accreditation was noncompliance with the standard mandating it “only admit applicants who appear capable of satisfactorily completing its program of legal education and being admitted to the bar.”
Just 30 percent of Thomas Jefferson’s 44 first-time takers passed the February exam. Meanwhile, only 19 percent of the school’s 124 repeat takers passed the test.
Both those figures were below the averages for the state’s 21 ABA-accredited law schools. Overall, 45 percent of first-time takers from those schools passed the February test, and 38 percent of repeaters did.
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But Thomas Jefferson’s graduates did not perform the worst among those from California’s ABA schools that had 11 or more takers.
Both Chapman University Fowler School of Law and Whittier Law School saw only 25 percent of their first-time takers pass. Whittier is in the process of closing down.
The worst repeater pass rate went to the University of La Verne College of Law, which saw only 6 of its 49 graduates in that category pass, a 12 percent success rate.
The results could spell more trouble ahead for California schools as they now have to contend with a stricter ABA accreditation standard requiring 75 percent of a school’s bar takers to pass within two years of graduation.
Here’s a breakdown of the first-time pass rates for California ABA schools with 11 or more takers on the February 2019 exam:
- Santa Clara University School of Law, 67 percent
- USC Gould School of Law, 64 percent
- University of San Diego School of Law, 64 percent
- California Western School of Law, 46 percent
- McGeorge School of Law, 44 percent
- Western State College of Law, 43 percent
- Loyola Law School, 42 percent
- Golden Gate University School of Law, 38 percent
- Thomas Jefferson School of Law, 30 percent
- Southwestern Law School, 29 percent
- Chapman University School of Law, 25 percent
- Whittier Law School, 25 percent
The State Bar does not provide the results in a test-taker category if a school did not have 11 or more takers in that category.
Lyle Moran is a freelance writer in San Diego who handles both journalism and content writing projects. He previously reported for the Los Angeles Daily Journal, San Diego Daily Transcript, Associated Press, and Lowell Sun. He can be reached at [email protected] and found on Twitter @lylemoran.