The American Bar Association’s accrediting arms has reportedly thrown its support behind a proposed increase to the bar-passage rate standard for law schools in the United States. The new rules would stipulate that 75 per cent of each law school’s graduates that sit the bar exam must pass within two years, down from the current five years. Schools that fail to meet this minimum may lose their accreditation as a consequence. Having cleared the ABA Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar through a voice vote on Friday, the proposal will come before the ABA House of Delegates early next year for a final vote.

For and against

Those in favour of the proposed increase have argued that more needs to be done to protect aspiring lawyers who are paying exorbitant fees for a legal education that fails to sufficiently equip them for a career in law. However, critics have countered that increasing the bar-passage rate hurdle will disadvantage schools that admit a higher proportion of students from minority backgrounds, given the statistical gap in bar exam pass rates between white and non-white law graduates. Last week, a group of deans from historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) co-authored an op-ed in the National Law Journal calling on the ABA to postpone raising the bar-passage standard until after it had conducted research on the likely impact of the change on HBCUs and on diversity in the legal profession.

Sources: Wall Street Journal; National Law Journal