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#Fewer law school graduates pass bar exam in California - LA Times

Has the bar gotten harder, or have law school graduates become less capable?

For the first time in nearly a decade, most law school graduates who took the summer California bar exam failed, adding to the pressure on law schools already dealing with plummeting enrollments, complaints about student debt and declining job prospects.

The 48.6% pass rate in California is a drop of nearly 7 percentage points from the previous year; nearly 8,500 people took the test in July. The last time the passage rate dipped below half was in 2005.

Many other states showed similar declines this year. It's unclear why the recent passage rates are so low, but they fell by at least 5 percentage points in 20 states.

All [factors] point to the fact that the group that sat in July 2014 was less able than the group that sat in July 2013. - Erica Moeser, head of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, in a memo

The decrease in the number of law school graduates who pass the bar could make it more difficult for schools to attract applicants. As a result, administrators might have to offer further incentives to prospective attorneys, experts say.

Some schools have reduced tuition and increased scholarships, and some have cut staff. Still others are offering dual degrees in an effort to help graduates find jobs.

Law school deans are in a particularly difficult situation these days, said Derek Muller, a professor at Pepperdine University who writes on the business of law.

The bar exam is offered twice a year, in July and February. The number of people who take the July test is traditionally far greater than in February. About 45% of test-takers passed the California bar in February.

Many academics say the drop isn't a concern at least not yet. We live in a sound-bite society, but one year does not make a trend, said Gilbert A. Holmes, dean of the University of La Verne College of Law.

In 2008, nearly 62% of people taking the July exam in California passed, but that percentage fell nearly 5 points the following year.

Law school administrators began raising concerns about the most recent scores several months ago. Erica Moeser, president of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, a nonprofit that administers parts of the test, said employees verified that no errors occurred in scoring the exam and instead said the test-takers themselves were to blame for the drop.

All [factors] point to the fact that the group that sat in July 2014 was less able than the group that sat in July 2013, Moeser wrote in a memo.

Administrators at nearly 80 law schools responded by sending a letter to the national bar group, asking it to investigate how this summer's test was scored and for Moeser to explain her remarks.

To make such a damning statement of this group of law students, to label them as being as less able based on solely that the average score was lower than the year before, is what got me upset and what got the other deans upset, said Holmes, who signed the administrators' letter.

Moeser said her organization is reviewing the deans' requests.

@JD Holdenfield I m proposing that California high schools be allowed to award law degrees, at least to certain people .