The Council of the Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has twice proposed that, for accreditation purposes, the Bar passage requirements of Standard 316 be amended to focus solely on what the ABA calls "Ultimate" Bar passage: the percentage of a law school's graduates who pass the Bar within two years of graduation. All ABA law schools would have to maintain Ultimate Bar passage percentages of at least 75% for every year-group of graduates. The proposed Standard 316 would abandon the current alternate measure, which compares a law school's first-time Bar passage percentage to the ABA first-time Bar passage percentages in each state where its graduates took the Bar.
The proposed new Standard 316 has twice been rejected by the ABA House of Delegates. Despite that, ABA rules permit the Section Council to "reaffirm and adopt" the proposed revision to Standard 316. It is widely expected that they will do so.
At this point, the Section on Legal has released the 2018 and 2019 Ultimate Bar Passage Outcome Reports, which include data for 2015 and 2016 graduates, respectively. The overall Ultimate Bar passage outcomes for all ABA law schools was 88.32% of all 2015 graduates, and 88.57% of all 2016 graduates.
Of these, 14 law schools reported two-year Ultimate Bar passage percentages below 75% for both 2015 and 2016 graduates:
ABA-Approved Law Schools
with Ultimate Bar Passage Percentages Below 75%
for both 2015 and 2016 Graduates (with 2015 to 2016 Changes)
School Name |
UBar 2015 |
UBar 2016 |
Change |
ARIZONA SUMMIT LAW SCHOOL |
59.75% |
50.00% |
-9.75% |
ATLANTA'S JOHN MARSHALL LAW SCHOOL |
67.50% |
59.76% |
-7.74% |
BARRY UNIVERSITY |
73.50% |
71.14% |
-2.36% |
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, UNIVERSITY OF |
64.71% |
71.43% |
6.72% |
FLORIDA COASTAL SCHOOL OF LAW |
72.08% |
64.54% |
-7.54% |
GOLDEN GATE UNIVERSITY |
72.26% |
74.00% |
1.74% |
HOWARD UNIVERSITY |
72.88% |
54.64% |
-18.24% |
INTER AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO |
63.83% |
57.22% |
-6.61% |
NEW ENGLAND LAW | BOSTON |
60.26% |
71.13% |
10.87% |
PONTIFICAL CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF P.R. |
60.73% |
54.47% |
-6.26% |
SOUTH DAKOTA, UNIVERSITY OF |
72.73% |
67.92% |
-4.81% |
VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY |
69.35% |
65.99% |
-3.36% |
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY |
69.75% |
69.02% |
-0.73% |
WHITTIER LAW SCHOOL |
74.26% |
57.26% |
-17.00% |
Of these fourteen law schools:
- Arizona Summit, Valparaiso, and Whittier have stopped admitting students, and are operating under teach-out plans.
- Effective December 13, 2018, the ABA put Atlanta's John Marshall on probation, due to "substantial and persistent" non-compliance with Standards 301(a)(adequacy of program of legal education), 309(b) (academic support), and 501(a) and (b) (admissions) and Interpretation 501-1 (entering student credentials, academic support, academic attrition, and Bar passage).
Another fifteen law schools reported Ultimate Bar passage percentages below 75% for either 2015 graduates, or 2016 graduates, but not for both:
ABA-Approved Law Schools
with Ultimate Bar Passage Percentages Below 75%
for either 2015 or 2016 Graduates, Only (with 2015 to 2016 Changes)
School Name |
UBar 2015 |
UBar 2016 |
Change |
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY |
74.94% |
83.33% |
8.39% |
APPALACHIAN SCHOOL OF LAW |
78.33% |
69.77% |
-8.56% |
AVE MARIA SCHOOL OF LAW |
75.90% |
73.33% |
-2.57% |
DAYTON, UNIVERSITY OF |
77.27% |
69.23% |
-8.04% |
ELON UNIVERSITY |
87.06% |
66.27% |
-20.79% |
LA VERNE, UNIVERSITY OF |
78.95% |
74.47% |
-4.48% |
MCGEORGE SCHOOL OF LAW, |
82.21% |
73.48% |
-8.73% |
NORTH DAKOTA, UNIVERSITY OF |
73.21% |
78.26% |
5.05% |
OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY |
71.88% |
85.07% |
13.20% |
PUERTO RICO, UNIVERSITY OF |
77.58% |
69.88% |
-7.70% |
SAN FRANCISCO, UNIVERSITY OF |
80.98% |
67.44% |
-13.54% |
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY |
71.20% |
90.12% |
18.92% |
THOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL OF LAW |
76.75% |
63.83% |
-12.92% |
VERMONT LAW SCHOOL |
85.44% |
74.34% |
-11.10% |
WYOMING, UNIVERSITY OF |
68.92% |
91.94% |
23.02% |
Gary Rosin
Note: Corrected to delete Detroit Mercy from the second table. The initial data reported to the ABA for 2015 graduates was incorrect. The correct Ultimate Bar passage number is 80.53. The overall Ultimate Bar passage number for all 2015 graduates was corrected to 88.32%. My apologies to Detroit Mercy for my failure to catch that. GR
Note: I have heard that other schools may have misreported their data for 2015 graduates. If so, updated data has not yet been included in the 2018 Bar Passage Outcomes Report on the ABA Statistics website. GR
Any law school that has been on probation during past fifteen years for poor academic performance that has now, after an extremely brief period of compliance, slipped back into abysmal failure must be shuttered. A record of repeated failure, punctuated by brief compliance, suggests an incompetent faculty and administration.
A law school that fails so abjectly that charges tuition rates that approach those of the very best law schools just adds insult to the injury it inflicts on its students. (In addition, dismal job prospects and a degree that most of the community considers devalued.)
When will the ABA single out repeat offenders and recognize the truth?
Posted by: anon | April 28, 2019 at 02:45 PM
The South Dakota legislature may need to pick up their checkbook if they want to retain an accredited law school in their jurisdiction. Providing only $6,200 per student isn't producing the academic support, recruiting power, or financial stability that the ABA has previously asked USD to show.
Posted by: LSAP | April 28, 2019 at 08:36 PM
These rapacious bad actors will do ANYTHING to survive.
The ABA needs to scrutinize how a bad actor -- i.e., a failing faculty that can't recognize its own shortcomings -- gamed a prior probation to escape scrutiny.
The production of a short term improvement is suspect when, as soon as the heat is off, the results slip back to where they were -- or worse.
Why can't the ABA distinguish between first-time and repeat offenders?
Where is the common sense?
Will it accept some sort of short-term improvement accompanied by sincere promises to do better (again)????
At some, point, the regulators must regulate. In the case of a repeat offender, with a demonstrably failed faculty/administration, how many more students must be sacrificed to "professional courtesy" and profit?
Posted by: anon | April 29, 2019 at 01:38 PM