Pontifical Catholic law school back in compliance, ABA council finds
The Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico School of Law is back in compliance with ABA standards, according to a May 2025 memo posted by the ABA council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
In May 2023, the council found “significant noncompliance,” involving Standard 501(a), which requires that schools publish and follow sound admissions policies, and Standard 501(b), a requirement that schools only admit applicants who appear capable of completing law school and being admitted to practice law.
According to its 2023-24 Standard 509 Information Report, Pontifical accepted 44.34% of its applicants. The median LSAT score for full-time students at Pontifical Catholic is 137, and the median undergraduate grade-point average is 3.37, according to the report.
The attrition rate—the number of students asked to leave law school because of academic performance—was 7% for first-year students in the 2023-24 school year, according to ABA data.
After the 2020 elimination of the EXADEP exam, a tool commonly used in Puerto Rico for graduate admission, the law school revised admissions standards and protocols, Fernando Moreno-Orama, Pontifical’s law school dean, said in an email to the ABA Journal.
“We strengthened our evaluation criteria, increased the weight given to personal interviews, and ensured closer alignment with predictors of law school success,” he says. “Additionally, we expanded our office of admissions, enabling more robust candidate outreach, individualized assessment and follow-up support throughout the admissions cycle.”
The efforts brought the school out of noncompliance. “The council concluded that the information provided by the law school is sufficient to demonstrate compliance with Standards 501(a) and 501(b),” the posted memo stated.
ABA Standard 316 mandates that a law school must maintain a bar pass rate of at least 75% within two years of graduation to remain accredited, a target that Pontifical, historically, has struggled to meet. The most recent ABA data shows Pontifical bar pass rates for the class of 2022 is 62.03%.
However, the next scores will show improvement, the dean says.
“The 2023 graduating cohort has already reached an 80% passage rate, which will be formally reported to the ABA in February 2026,” he says.
The law school is collaborating with the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico to explore improvements to the licensure process, he adds.
Puerto Rico remains one of the jurisdictions with the lowest bar passage rates among the 56 tracked by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. “Both institutional and systemic reforms are necessary to ensure that the process more effectively evaluates readiness to practice while supporting access to the profession,” he says.
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