PASSING THE BAR EXAM

Of the 6,997 people who took the California State Bar Exam last July, 59.5% passed and won the right to practice law. The pass rate was 72.2% among the 4,909 people taking the exam for the first time. The pass percentage traditionally is higher among first-timers than among the total group of applicants, which includes people who repeatedly fail the exam.

Among the statistics compiled by the State Bar of California are comparative pass-fail rates for graduates of California-accredited law schools. Shown below are results of the July exam, with schools ranked according to the percentage of first-time applicants passing.

Also shown are the combined results for first-time applicants taking the 10 bar exams given over 5 years--from February, 1985, through July, 1989. Statewide, of 32,098 first-time bar applicants during that time, 19,055--or 59.36%--passed the test. Rankings of unaccredited and correspondence schools are not included. Schools listed in bold are in Los Angeles County. Part of the 1990 February exam was given this week.

STATE ACCREDITED, ABA-APPROVED SCHOOLS

FIRST-TIMERS ALL APPLICANTS FIRST-TIMERS JULY ’89 JULY ’89 ‘85-89 SCHOOL TAKING % TAKING % TAKING % EXAM PASS EXAM PASS EXAM PASSED UC Davis 142 93.7% 153 89.5% 745 79.06% Boalt Hall, 259 92.3% 277 89.5% 1,198 85.05% UC Berkeley USC 169 86.4% 188 80.9% 882 77.55 % Stanford University 114 86.0% 118 84.7% 474 85.86% Pepperdine University, 149 85.2% 178 76.4% 717 61.50% Malibu Loyola University, 297 83.8% 349 78.2% 1,712 68.16% Los Angeles UCLA 223 82.1% 263 74.1% 1,226 75.69 % Hastings, UC San Francisco 344 81.4% 393 75.8% 1,988 78.62% Southwestern University, 166 76.5% 233 67.0% 1,055 62.74% Los Angeles California Western, San Diego 74 75.7% 116 59.5% 535 52.71% University of San Diego 229 75.1% 283 70.3% 1,237 62.81% University of Santa Clara 195 70.3% 254 63.8% 1,132 61.74% Golden Gate Univ.,San Francisco 82 68.3% 122 58.2% 664 49.24% University of San Francisco 144 68.1% 184 62.0% 867 58.82% Univ. of the Pacific 283 65.0% 327 61.5% 1,527 68.30% (McGeorge),Sacramento Whittier College 62 64.5% 114 48.2% 449 39.42%

ACCREDITED, NON ABA-APPROVED SCHOOLS

FIRST-TIMERS ALL APPLICANTS FIRST-TIMERS JULY ’89 JULY ’89 ‘85-89 SCHOOL TAKING % TAKING % TAKING % EXAM PASS EXAM PASS EXAM PASSED San Joaquin College, Fresno 21 95.2% 24 87.5% 133 60.90% Glendale College of Law 10 70.0% 16 43.8% 76 48.68% Western State Univ., San Diego 43 67.4% 121 40.5% 519 44.50% La Verne University 15 66.7% 33 48.5% 121 42.97% John F. Kennedy Univ., 10 60.0% 32 31.3% 167 37.72% Walnut Creek Univ. of La Verne at 31 54.8% 66 37.9% 200 44.00% San Fernando, Sepulveda Ventura College 15 53.3% 38 34.2% 147 45.57% Western State Univ., 102 52.9% 331 35.0% 1,386 42.13% Fullerton Lincoln Law School, Sacramento 41 51.2% 59 44.1% 174 43.67% National Univ., San Diego 16 50.0% 29 44.8% 127 48.81% New College, San Francisco 18 44.4% 55 20.0% 173 27.16% Monterey College 16 43.8% 26 46.2% 119 53.78% Humphrey’s College, Stockton 14 42.9% 22 40.9% 70 55.71% Santa Barbara College of Law 12 41.7% 26 30.8% 128 50.78% Univ. of West Los Angeles 37 37.8% 120 27.5% 305 36.72% Empire College, Santa Rosa 12 33.3% 16 25.0% 104 40.38% San Francisco Law School 29 27.6% 61 18.0% 151 32.45% Northrop Univ., Inglewood 4 0.0% 26 7.7% 55 05.45% SOURCE: State Bar of California: Compiled by Researcher Tracy Thomas

SOURCE: State Bar of California: Compiled by Researcher Tracy Thomas