ABA Relaxes Audit Of Employment Outcome Reported By Law Schools, Forms Committee To Examine Reporting Of Bar Exam Pass Rates During COVID-19

ABA Journal, ABA Legal Ed Council Addresses Reporting Requirements Amid Law Schools’ COVID-19 Concerns:

Going forward, the ABA's Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar will review fewer law school files with individual student information for purposes of employment outcomes reporting.

Additionally, given that some jurisdictions have postponed admissions in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the section has established a committee to address reporting bar exam pass rates. The changes were discussed Friday at a remote meeting of the council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.

“In the past, we’ve reviewed 10 or 20 files, depending on a graduating class’ size. We are going to reduce that number, because the schools would like quicker feedback, and because we are not finding serious problems in the auditing process. We are not seeing schools misreporting. Sometimes we will see some confusion or documentation they would need to do a better job on,” said Bill Adams, managing director of ABA accreditation and legal education.