Welp, a deal is a deal. Elon University School of Law Dean Zak Kramer made his students a promise: hit an 85% first-time bar passage rate as a class, and he’d get a tattoo in their honor. Equal parts motivation and branding… and a little bit of a stunt, but one a dean is only gonna pull when he genuinely believes the number is gettable.
The Class of 2025 did not merely get there. They crushed it, posting a 91.96% first-time pass rate on the North Carolina bar — a school record, and one that towers over the statewide first-time rate of 74.78%. (Across North Carolina and 11 other jurisdictions, the class hit 90.9%.)
So on September 4, Kramer paid up. He sat down at a tattoo parlor and got an Elon Law-themed “1 & Done” inked onto his forearm, a nod to the school’s mantra about clearing the bar on the first try. Now, “1 and done” is a lovely sentiment when you’re talking about the bar exam, but somewhere out there, a parent of an only child just felt an inexplicable pang of solidarity with a law school dean they have never met.
Managing Partners are Navigating the AI Inflection Point.
New executive research from Ari Kaplan explores how law firm leaders are responding to changing client expectations, evolving economics, talent transformation, and AI governance.
But family-planning connotations aside, it’s a genuinely nice gesture and proof Kramer isn’t a regular dean, he’s a cool dean. And he’s got the ink to prove it.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1