Representing a proposed new tracking metric, in March the American Bar Association for the first time compiled pass rates for Class of 2015 graduates who took the bar exam within two years of graduation, sitting for the exam once or a maximum of four times, rather than the previously tracked five-year period.
ABA currently requires 75 percent of a law school’s graduates pass the exam within five years of graduation – a “much more flexible standard,” said University of Massachusetts School of Law Dean Eric Mitnick.
However, the ABA called the two-year metric data “important consumer information for students considering whether and where to attend law school” and chose to compile the new data because graduates “overwhelmingly sit for the bar immediately or soon after graduation.”
Even under the more-stringent requirements, the UMass law school, housed at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and Roger Williams University School of Law are handily meeting the proposed new measure.
The March ABA data reported bar exam pass rates of 88.7 percent for the UMass law school and 85.3 percent for the RWU law school. Conversely, bar exam failure rates for UMass and RWU 2015 graduates two years out from graduation were 11.3 percent and 14.7 percent, respectively.
Nationwide, the same ABA report found nearly 90 percent (87.8) of all 2015 graduates at ABA-accredited law schools who took the exam within two years passed, while 12.2 percent failed.
Curious to know if RWU law students have met the proposed new ABA metric in years past, RWU law school Dean Michael Yelnosky calculated two-year bar exam pass rates for the following classes: 2011 (87 percent), 2012 (95 percent), 2013 (92 percent), 2014 (85 percent) and 2015 (85 percent).
“Historically, we’ve been comfortably above the 75 percent” two-year pass rate, he said.
Due to the newness of UMass School of Law’s ABA accreditation, similar two-year calculations could not be made.
Founded in 1993 and receiving ABA accreditation in 1996, the first class to graduate from RWU’s law school was in 1996. UMass law school’s ABA accreditation is more recent. Founded in 1981 as a state law school with students only sitting for the Massachusetts bar exam, the UMass law school did not receive full ABA accreditation until December 2016, which means the first cohort to graduate under that auspice was the Class of 2017.
Given their relatively short histories, these two law schools have had to adopt best practices to ensure 75-plus percent of their students pass the bar exam and do so fast.
UMass relies on a combination of partnerships with commercial bar exam preparation companies, including Kaplan Test Prep, Themis Bar Review and Barbri, and flexible faculty to not only catch up to but match national bar pass rates, said Mitnick.
Review materials provided by commercial partners, he said, “ensure all of our graduates are able to seamlessly go from their last semester” to the July bar exam as prepared as they can be.
‘Nobody passes the bar exam without working hard.’
MICHAEL YELNOSKY, Roger Williams University School of Law dean
Bar exams are offered twice each year, in February and in July.
Unlike prior years, said Mitnick, evaluation of students’ knowledge of the subject is measured throughout the semester, rather than sitting for one exam culminating a semester’s worth of material.
“The best learning comes from formative assessment – quizzes, tests, midterms – and a lot of interaction with the faculty,” he said, “making sure students understand the information before moving on.”
Willing to extend their services beyond traditional semester boundaries, UMass faculty’s continued support of recent graduates prior to the bar exam has proved beneficial, he said.
Mary McBride, a UMass 3L student and UMass Law Review editor-in-chief, confirmed the extra mile the state school professors go to help students excel in the field.
“There are a lot of professors here [for whom] it’s pretty standard for them to go out of their way to help students one-on-one,” she said.
Some, added McBride, even offer review sessions in the summer for recent graduates preparing to take the July exam.
She categorized students’ access to faculty as “an open-door policy” for those who seek out academic help. McBride has visited law professors in their offices multiple times throughout the semester – something she “didn’t do [as an] undergrad.”
RWU also touts a “robust academic support program,” said Yelnosky, a third-year, for-credit course designed as an intensive bar exam training session. While RWU students are not required to take it, a similar course exists at UMass that is mandatory for program completion.
Similar to UMass, RWU’s director of bar support is available to students in the summer prior to the July exam and on weekends leading up to the February exam.
The cornerstone, said Yelnosky, is “bar awareness.” Multiple exams are given during law school, he added, but its important students know “nobody passes the bar exam without working hard.”
