July 2009 Bar Passage Rates
GMUSL 1st Time Pass: 90.6%
GMUSL Overall Pass: 89.1
VA 1st Time Pass: 80.2%
VA Overall Pass: 75.4%
UPDATE: I got an email inquiring as to whether GMU faculty gear their courses to Virginia law, or national law. The answer is that outside of specific Virginia practice electives, GMU classes cover national law, e.g., the Federal Rules of Evidence, not Virginia evidence law.
John Jenkins says:
Apparently the Bar Examiners in Virginia are not screwing around.
October 29, 2009, 9:28 pmofstro says:
Listen up employers: If you’re looking for grunts who excel at memorizing pointless outlines that have nothing to do with the practice of law, you know know where to go.
We’re number 41! We’re number 41! We’re number 41!
October 29, 2009, 9:44 pmJosh Blackman says:
Mason FTW! http://wp.me/pEwAT-m5 And gladly, I contributed to that passage rate :)
October 29, 2009, 11:04 pmBrett says:
Do Mason students only take the VA bar? (Good record either way.)
October 29, 2009, 11:23 pmDavid Bernstein says:
Brett, no. I don’t know the stats, but it’s well over 50%. If you’re going to practice in Va., you take the Va. bar, and if you’re going to practice in D.C., you still take the Va. bar, because you can waive into D.C.
October 29, 2009, 11:46 pmQ says:
Was this information released by the VBBE, or was it calculated by GMU from a list of students known to take the bar in Virginia?
October 29, 2009, 11:49 pmDavid Bernstein says:
Q, don’t know, it was circulated at GMU. But since we certainly have no idea whose repeating their bar-taking, I assume it came from an official source.
October 29, 2009, 11:53 pmJay says:
I think GMU is a fine school, but I always find it a bit rich when law schools brag about their bar passages rates. At all but the most lowly of schools, the faculty would not be caught dead admitting that anything they do is designed to prepare students for the bar, and students are regularly advised of how silly it is to take a class because the subject matter will be on the bar exam. People pass the bar based on their intelligence and motivation to study during the summer before they take it, not because of anything their law school did to prepare them.
October 29, 2009, 11:56 pmDavid Bernstein says:
Assuming arguendo that this is true, why wouldn’t a school want people to know that their students are intelligent and motivated?
October 29, 2009, 11:59 pmBarney says:
Let’s tackle the real pressing question, though: how do those numbers stack up against passage rates out of Charlottesville, Williamsburg and Lexington? Surely, if GMU is only the fourth best law school in the state, 100% of our peers to the south will have mastered the test…right?
October 30, 2009, 12:14 amJay says:
Barney–As a UVA alum, I have no problem promoting GMU to 2nd best in the state : )
Prof. Bernstein–Fair enough, but I think the usual implication is that it has something to do with the school (particularly when the numbers are quoted in admissions materials, which are presumably designed to induce students to attend).
October 30, 2009, 12:28 amAnon says:
GMUSL students are smart and look good on paper (high LSATs, GPAs, etc.), but what really sets them apart is motivation.
Many are from middle-class backgrounds — not “My dad is a partner at Latham” middle class, but “my mom is a physical therapist and my dad is a public high school history teacher” middle class. Many others are second-career types, paying their own ways through law school because they really want to be lawyers.
In general, they are very highly motivated to succeed. Few can expect mommy and daddy to set them up with a job.
October 30, 2009, 10:06 amBeldar says:
No one argues that there’s a perfect congruity between a school’s excellence and the passing percentage of its graduates. But it would be stupid to argue that a law school whose new graduates have a high bar exam failure rate has nothing to worry about and is doing its job well. By the same token, it’s perfectly fine to note and commend a school with a high passage rate, along with the students who achieved those results.
I believe that our current legal education and bar examination systems both need substantial reform. We should engraft upon the current systems a post-graduate fellowship requirement, comparable to medical residencies, with an additional certification layer at the end of that which focuses on the new lawyer’s type of practice (specialized or not).
But qualifying to sit for and then passing the admission exam for any state’s bar involves significant study and effort by the graduates. Despite the current system’s imperfections, the exams represent our profession’s traditional and most serious efforts to ensure its licensed members actually meet at least certain minimum qualifications.
Bar passage is not the be-all and end-all, in short, but neither is it small potatoes. I join in congratulating ALL summer 2009 bar examinees who’re getting their good news about now.
October 30, 2009, 12:16 pmAnonymous Troll says:
1. The comparison doesn’t mean much. The top of the UVA and W&M class took the NY bar.
October 30, 2009, 2:45 pm2. Does VA still let non-JD’s sit? That would skew the Overall number a fair amount.
3. GMU students are obviously more comfortable wearing closed collars and soft-soled dress shoes than the never-employed scions at the other VA law schools.
Greek Geek says:
Anonymous troll:
Virginia does allow non-jd’s to sit for the exam, but there is an apprenticeship required. The numbers on people who actually do this are incredibly small, and are highly unlikely to skew the numbers at all, let alone a fair amount.
As for points 1 and 3, though I went to none of the schools discussed, I assume you are merely living up to your name.
October 31, 2009, 10:31 am