ABA Approves New Objective Bar Passage Accreditation Standard

The ABA House of Delegates today passed Interpretation 301-6, imposing a new objective bar passage standard for law school accreditation. Under the new rule, over a five-year period (1) 75% of a school's graduates must have passed the bar, or (2) the school's annual first-time bar passage rate in state(s) in which at least 70% of its graduates take the bar must not be more than 15 percentage points below the average first-time bar passage rate in that state(s) for at least three of the years.

• ABA Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar:  Report No. 113 to the House of Delegates
• Consultant on Legal Education to the ABA:  FAQ on House of Delegates Report 113 Regarding the Proposed Interpretation of Standard 301-6

From the ABA Journal (ABA Approves Bar Pass Standards for Accreditation):

Victor M. Marquez, president of the Hispanic National Bar Association ... said the change will disadvantage Hispanic and African-American law students. ... 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.

David M. Zlotnick, Associate Dean & Distinguished Service Professor of Law at Roger Williams, offers these thoughts on the passage of Interpretation 301-6:

In an earlier post, Professor Caron included Roger Williams University School of Law in a chart listing institutions that might not meet the new ABA bar-passage rule. While Professor Caron has since posted a corrected explanation of the new standard, I am concerned that there might be some lingering sense that Roger Williams Law is a weak bar-pass school. In fact, the reverse is true.

The provision of the new ABA rule applicable to Roger Williams Law requires that, for three of the past five years, first-time test takers cannot score more than 15 percent below a state’s average (adding as many states as necessary to get to 70 percent of the school’s graduates for each year). Over the past five years, however, Roger Williams Law has never experienced a year in which 70 percent of first-time takers fell below the 15 percent mark – nor have we even come close to that trigger. If the past is any prologue, Roger Williams Law is at no risk of failing under the new rule.

Moreover, it is worth noting that our 2007 bar pass results were stellar. In the three jurisdictions where the vast majority of our students take the exam, our current statistics for first-time takers are as follows: a 90 percent pass rate in Connecticut, an 85 percent pass rate in Massachusetts, and 79 percent pass rate in RI. These numbers likely will put us over the average pass rates for first-time takers in these states by about three percent. In fact, among law schools with thirty or more test-takers, Roger Williams Law had the highest pass rate on the Connecticut bar in 2007. That means we beat many schools with much higher U.S. News rankings, both in Connecticut and in our other key states.

We are proud of the strong student culture that we have created here at Roger Williams Law. We believe that our bar pass success flows from a rigorous, yet supportive environment in which students get a personalized education at a relatively small institution.

Much appreciation to Professor Caron for allowing this "op ed" response on his blog.