ABA Proposal May Put Some Law Schools’ Accreditation at Risk

The ABA has proposed increasing the bar passage rate required for a law school to maintain its accreditation. Under the new proposal, at least 75% of a law school’s graduates must pass the bar exam within two years of graduating.  The proposal was approved by the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar last Friday, and will go to the ABA House of Delegates in February 2017.  Currently, a law school may meet its accreditation requirements if:  (1) at least 75 percent of graduates from the five most recent calendar years have passed a bar exam; (2) there’s a 75 percent pass rate for at least three of those five years; or (3) if 70 percent of its graduates pass the bar exam at a rate within 15 percentage points of the average first-time bar pass rate for ABA-approved law school graduates in the same jurisdiction for three out the five most recently completed calendar years.  However, as noted on Above the Law, the new accreditation standard may still have a loophole: law schools could require students to take a mock bar exam which they must pass in order to graduate, so that only those capable of passing the exam graduate in the first place.  If you are preparing to take the bar exam, real or mock, check out Marino’s tutoring and bar preparation packages.