U. of C. hits 99 percent on bar exam pass rate, all ILL - Chicago-Kent

CHICAGOLAWBULLETIN.COM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2013
®
Volume 159, No. 225
Almost
perfect
U. of C. hits 99 percent on bar exam pass
rate, all ILL. schools finish above average
BY JAMIE LOO
Law Bulletin staff writer
It wasn’t even close this year.
Perfection was the only way to
beat the University of Chicago
Law School.
The school posted a 99
percent pass rate on the July
2013 bar exam — the highest
among the nine Illinois law
schools.
“I’m very happy that our
students have collectively done
so well on this year’s bar exam,”
said Michael H. Schill, dean of
the law school.
The university’s bar pass rate
for first-time test-takers is a 4.4
percentage point increase over
last year’s 94.6 percent result. Of
the 73 students who sat for the
July exam, 72 passed.
When it comes to getting so
close to that perfect score, Schill
said, “every dean has the same
desire — to have every new
graduate pass the bar exam the
first time around. The closer we
get to that, the happier I am.”
Schill also noted that year-toyear pass-rate fluctuations are
the result of shifts in just a few
students. In other words, with
such a relatively small number of
students taking the exam in
Illinois, the pass percentage
drops even if just one or two
more students fail.
In addition, the law school has
many graduates who take the
bar exam all over the country,
“so the school does not have a
huge number of people taking
any one state’s exam in any given
year,” he said.
The overall pass rate for all
test-takers of the Illinois bar
exam in July was 85 percent,
said Regina Kwan Peterson,
director of administration for the
Illinois Board of Admissions to
the Bar.
Out of the 2,592 total testtakers, 2,208 passed and 384
failed.
Among the 2,388 first-time
test-takers, 2,123 passed and 265
failed, an 89 percent pass rate.
All nine Illinois law schools
posted pass rates above the
national average.
The University of Illinois
College of Law came in second
this year, at 96.03 percent. Of its
151 first-time test-takers, 145
passed and six failed.
“We are extraordinarily proud
of our recent graduates, who,
again this year, performed
outstandingly on the Illinois bar,”
said Illinois law school Dean
Bruce P. Smith.
“These results testify to the
intelligence, dedication,
judgment, and professionalism
for which Illinois graduates are
known, as well as to the rigorous
professional training that our
faculty and staff provide at the
University of Illinois College of
Law.”
Following in third is
Northwestern University School
of Law, with a bar pass rate of
95.69 percent for its 116 first-time
Michael H. Schill
test-takers. Of those, 111 passed
and five failed.
“As it is every year, it’s a good
deal higher than the overall
average for first-time test-takers.
I’m quite pleased with that,” said
Daniel B. Rodriguez, dean of
Northwestern’s law school.
IIT Chicago-Kent College of
Law had 225 graduates take the
bar for the first time in July —
210 passed and 15 failed, a pass
rate of 93 percent.
“I’m pleased that the overwhelming percentage of our
students passed the bar on their
first try,” said Chicago-Kent law
school dean Harold J. Krent. “It
lets them focus on obtaining the
best jobs as quickly as they can.”
Southern Illinois University
School of Law jumped the
highest in the state rankings,
moving from last to fifth place
this year with a 91 percent pass
rate. Of the 80 first-time testtakers from SIU, 73 passed and 7
failed.
“I am extremely proud of our
students’ success on the Illinois
bar exam. I know the hard work
and perseverance that went into
these fantastic results,” said SIU
law school dean Cynthia
Fountaine. “I believe that SIU
Law’s success on the bar examination is a reflection of the
outstanding training our
students receive in law school.”
DePaul University College of
Law had 228 first-time test
takers, with 203 graduates
passing and 25 failing, an 89.04
percent rate.
Loyola University Chicago
School of Law had a 88.84 pass
rate for first-time test-takers. A
total of 215 graduates took the
test; 191 passed and 24 failed.
From Northern Illinois
University College of Law, 95
graduates took the exam with an
overall pass rate of 86 percent.
Of this group, 82 passed and 13
failed.
The John Marshall Law
School had 258 first-time testtakers with a pass rate of 85
percent. Of those, 220 passed
and 38 failed.
All nine Illinois law schools
finished above the 81 percent
2012 national average for firsttime test-takers at American Bar
Association-accredited schools,
according to the National
Conference of Bar Examiners.
Although the ABA collects bar
pass rates from individual
schools, it does not track or rank
the schools based on that information.
The ABA approved bar pass
rate rules in 2008, amidst
pressure from the U.S.
Department of Education to
adopt consistent standards for
accreditation and as part of its
ongoing comprehensive review of
the ABA Standards and Rules
for Accreditation of Law Schools.
The current rules were part of
an interpretation of Standard
301 (a), a general requirement
that law schools provide a quality
education to students that
prepares them for admission to
the bar, said Barry Currier, ABA
managing director of accreditation and legal education. He said
the ABA’s Section of Legal
Education and Admissions to the
Bar Standards Review
Committee would like to formally
adopt standards for bar pass
rates.
The 2008 interpretation
provides three different bar-pass
rate options for law schools to
meet accreditation requirements.
The first is that 75 percent of
graduates who took the bar in
the five most recent calendar
years pass the exam. Another
test requires 75 percent of a law
school’s test-takers to pass in at
least three out of the five most
Copyright © 2013 Law Bulletin Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Publishing Company.
Bruce P. Smith
Daniel B. Rodriguez
Harold J. Krent
Cynthia Fountaine
recent years. Both of these
standards allow a law school to
count all of its graduates who
pass in that five-year time span,
including graduates who take the
exam up to nine times.
The third option is based on
first-time test-takers, in which a
law school’s bar passage rate for
that group can be no more than
15 points below the average of
the first-time bar passage rate at
ABA-approved law schools in
that same jurisdiction, in three
out of the five most recent years.
The standards review
committee is considering a few
different changes to the rules,
such as requiring an 80 percent
bar pass rate for all of a law
school’s graduates within two
years of graduation. The firsttime test-taker rule would be
eliminated.
The proposal would also
include requiring law schools to
report on all of its graduates who
took the bar exam, including
those who fail and choose not to
take it again. The current ABA
rules only require schools to
report results for 70 percent of
its graduates because of difficulties in tracking all class
members, who may take the bar
in states other than a school’s
jurisdiction.
The ABA committee recognizes the issues involved in
asking schools to report on 100
percent of its students, Currier
said, and that addressing some of
these would likely preclude
adoption of such a rule. He said
the ABA is looking for ways to
make it easier for schools to get
results from bar examiners.
Some state bar offices have small
staffs and limited resources.
“It’s not so much about cooperation, but communication
flow,” he said.
Bar examiners in each state
handle distribution of the results
differently. Some state bar
examiners automatically provide
law schools in their jurisdictions
with the results of all of their
graduates, while others leave it
up to schools to compile their
own lists or track down
graduates individually.
In Illinois, the state bar admissions board does not track pass
rates for individual law schools.
Test-taker privacy is another
issue, Currier said, and one
suggestion the committee is
exploring is a universal release
form that graduates can sign,
releasing their bar results to
their schools.
The bar-pass rate is just one of
many standards that the legal
education and admissions
standards review committee has
been reviewing for the past few
years.
Although the bar pass rate
issue is still in committee discussion and a formal proposal and
notice for comment has not been
issued, the committee is already
receiving letters from law
schools, bar groups and others
concerned about the proposal.
Currier said there is no
specific timeline for when the
overall standards review will be
completed.
“We would like to get it done
promptly,” he said.
Copyright © 2013 Law Bulletin Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Publishing Company.