Midyear Meeting 2008
ABA Approves Bar Pass Standards for Accreditation
Posted Feb 11, 2008, 07:07 pm CDT
By Edward A. Adams
Garcia-Pedrosa. Photo by Mark Harmel
The ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates has concurred in a revision to the Standards for Approval of Law Schools relating to bar passage rates, making numerical pass rates a factor in accreditation of law schools by the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
The measure (DOC), 113, passed by a voice vote.
The change is being made because the U.S. Department of Education—which since 1952 has designated the Legal Education Section as the accreditation body for law schools—requires a numerical standard, Jose Garcia-Pedrosa told the House.
Garcia-Pedrosa is Chief Operating Officer for the National Parkinson Foundation in Miami.
Without passage, the DOE won’t renew the ABA’s role as the accrediting agency later this year, he said.
The proposal says a law school’s bar passage rate will meet the ABA accreditation standard on the subject if it meets any of the following tests:
In the last five years, 75 percent of the school’s grads who sat for the bar passed an exam, or, in at least three of those years, 75 percent of the grads graduating in those years who sat for the bar passed an exam.
The school’s annual first-time bar passage rate in jurisdictions most popular with its grads is no more than 15 points below the average first-time bar passage rates for grads of ABA-approved law schools.
Victor M. Marquez, president of the Hispanic National Bar Association and a founder of the Marquez Law Group of San Francisco, said the change will disadvantage Hispanic and African-American law students. He suggested the ABA should ask for an extension of time from the DOE, rather than pass the proposed standard.
A representative of the largely African-American National Bar Association also opposed the measure, as did the Philadelphia Bar Association. More than five former ABA presidents—including the only two minorities who have held that post—favored the measure, as did the Law Student Division.
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Comments
Posted by joe smith - 4 months, 3 weeks, 10 hours, 15 minutes ago
the aba is a joke..a bunch of old people trying to justify their jobs..time for it go...it serves no purpose....
Posted by rana muhamamd akram khan - 4 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 2 hours, 56 minutes ago
it is real and good for legal field i like ABA very much i wish that all the lawyers enjoy this with wholeheartedly thanks rana muhammad akram advocate from paksitan.
Posted by Jay - 4 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 59 minutes ago
Unfortunately, these new bar pass rate standards will work to keep new law schools from opening, attracting good law student candidates, and simply serves a protectionist function for older, well-established law schools.
Posted by Thank You, DOE - 4 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 22 hours, 23 minutes ago
It’s sad that it took the threat of DOE action to get this accomplished. The vast majority of attorneys and consumers will be well-served by this requirement. It will serve to cut down on the proliferation of law schools that exist only to make big $$$...regardless of the poor quality grads they accept and churn out, hurting us all.
Posted by Steve - 4 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 17 hours, 36 minutes ago
How is this a bad thing? If a school can’t teach their student enough to pass the bar (given a reasonable margin of failure - which 75% absolute and within 15% is very reasonable), what is the school doing with the students while they are there??? And why are certain minority groups upset about it? The Bar exam doesn’t see color, and I don’t know of any reason why minorities are at any disadvantage once they are in law school. We have measures for equality in admission (URM), it’s up to the student and the school to get the proper education, and if not, we shouldn’t be flooding the market with poorly educated students from ineffective law schools.
Posted by anon - 4 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 17 hours, 25 minutes ago
Somewhere, Loyola 2L is proud.
Posted by L@L2L - 4 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 12 hours, 5 minutes ago
This is fantastic. Thank god the ABA is finally doing what it’s supposed to do. Too many toilet law schools are opening and promising naive people the moon in exchange for $140k. These poor slaves of Sallie Mae are then cast on the street to cheapen our profession and degrade us all. I don’t blame them but the system that put them there. As for the URM complainers, you are just highlighting the ridiculous nature of AA.
Posted by realist - 4 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 53 minutes ago
Yes, Loyola 2L is proud. I think this is a start. The law schools in this nation are pulling off a giant expensive bait and switch and it is time for someone to call them to account!
Posted by David Herz - 4 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 19 hours, 52 minutes ago
The Bar is just another useless standardized test. I am sure we could all find plenty of good lawyers who had a hell of a time passing the bar and plenty of marginal lawyers who passed with ease. The Bar exam a waste of time and money, and should be abolished.
Posted by Mike - 4 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes ago
DOE REQUEST: Gear it up for less lawyers please.
ABA RESPONSE: OK!
WOULD BE LAW STUDENT’S REACTION: Boohoo!
LAWYER’S INNER THOUGHTS: YAY!!!!!
Posted by curious like a cat - 4 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 7 hours, 31 minutes ago
Are the representatives for minority groups saying this disadvantages minorities b/c after 4 years of undergrad and 3 years of law school minority students are too dumb to pass the bar at a rate less than 15% lower than the national average? That’s a pretty racist insinuation against minorities… from minorities?
Posted by Florida law student - 4 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, 25 minutes ago
This is a step in the right direction, but won’t do much to help in a state like Florida, where we have 10 law schools, and 6 of those drag down the bar passage rate pretty significantly. You have UF, Miami, FSU and Stetson far above average (more than 10 points above state overall rate), and the other 6 schools 10-15 points below the state average. When the crappy schools contribute so significantly to the bar passage rate average, they get past this proposed accreditation hurdle merely by having lots of other crappy law schools to bring down the state passage rate. Hmmm....
One other thought: this new proposal will incentive the same schools to pressure their worst students to drop out or not take the bar. I think a secondary requirement is that the number of passing students should be divided by the number of students who graduated, not the number who took the bar.
Posted by mad grammarian - 4 months, 2 weeks, 8 minutes ago
Florida law student: be careful about casting the first stone! “Incentive” is a noun, not a verb. And the much misused “incentivize” is not a real word. The word you were looking for is “motivate.”
Posted by Michael W. Murphy - 4 months, 1 week, 5 days, 15 hours, 59 minutes ago
What this will do is increase the number of required courses. When I was in law school (a little over 30 years ago), 66 of the required 90 semester hours were required courses. THe result was a high bar pass rate. Since then the number of required courses was reduced, as has the bar pass rate!