Law Schools Need to Better Prepare Their Students

Linda Sheryl Greene

Linda Sheryl Greene is the Evjue-Bascom professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Updated September 24, 2015, 4:10 PM

Since the economic downturn signaled by the fall of Lehman Brothers, law practice has become more competitive. Firms have failed, they are hiring fewer entry-level lawyers and, as a result, student demand for legal education has plummeted. According to the Law School Admissions Council, the organization that administers the LSAT, the number of students taking the exams was at an all-time high during the 2009-2010 academic year — 171,514 — and dropped to 101,689 in 2014-2015. The 205 American Bar Association-approved law schools are now competing for the best students in this shrunken pool.

Law schools have a duty to examine the circumstances that may prevent some students from passing the bar, and act swiftly to address them.

Schools have responded variously to this new landscape. The most highly ranked (and well endowed) schools have not changed much, but others have downsized to retain their selectivity, or maintained their size by admitting students with less selective profiles, or sought to become more attractive by offering accelerated two-year programs. Though the pool has changed, we shouldn’t make broad generalizations about the quality of today’s law students or future lawyers based on a changing market for legal education.

Still, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners, there was a drop in bar passage rates in 38 states in 2013 and 2014. And 2015 statistics look likely to mark a third year of decline. Some say the bar results reflect a change in the quality of law school candidates as measured by LSAT scores. But embedded in those statistics are schools whose student profiles vary but whose bar passage rates are virtually identical. For example, in 2015, 89 percent of the graduates of Florida International University Law School — ranked 102 by U.S. News and World Reportpassed the bar compared to 87 percent of the graduates of 47th ranked University of Florida. And despite the aggregate bar passage slip, the reality is that the bulk of accredited law schools produce excellent graduates who pass their bar exams and go on to meet the legal and leadership needs of their communities.

Nonetheless, law schools have a duty to examine the circumstances that may prevent some students from passing the bar, whether rooted in student capacity or pedagogical weakness, and act swiftly to address them. That action could include early identification of students who may have difficulty on exams or courses to ensure students are familiar with the content of bar exams and have exposure to specific test-taking skills necessary to pass them. After all, the American Bar Association obliges its law schools to maintain “a rigorous program of legal education that prepares its students…for admission to the bar.” There is also an ethical obligation we owe students in light of the tremendous debt they assume and the sacrifices they make to enter the legal profession.

It is imperative, however, that law schools not overreact to the bar exam decline by limiting access to legal education. Instead, let’s keep the door open and provide the support students need to succeed in law school and at the bar, as well as to serve the public in and outside of the legal profession.


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Topics: Law, law school

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