Top 25 “Overperforming” Law Schools in Bar Passage Rates Provide Students with Academic Support and Bar Prep Programming

When it comes to bar passage, not all law schools are created equal. A recent paper published in the Florida Law Review, and summarized by Law.com, analyzed law schools’ bar passage rates and found that some schools’ students are “outperforming” while others are “underperforming.”

Researchers conducted the analysis by looking at each ABA-accredited law school’s predicted pass rate compared to the actual pass rate for first-time test-takers over a six-year period. The study’s authors predicted the pass rate for each school by evaluating the students’ incoming credentials (e.g., LSAT) in each law class along with the average bar pass rate for the jurisdictions where the students take the bar exam. The actual rate incorporates both the relative and actual performance of students on the test.

The top 25 overperforming law schools—schools where the actual pass rates regularly surpass the predicted rates—are listed below. Law.com’s reprint of the list also includes the U.S. News and World Report ranking in parentheses.

1. Florida International (#60 in U.S. News)

2. Stanford (#1)

3. USC (#16)

4. UC-Berkeley (#10)

5. North Carolina (#22)

6. Belmont (#105)

7. Michigan (#10)

8. Florida State (#56)

9. UCLA (#14)

10. Virginia (#8)

11. Campbell (#125)

12. Yale (#1)

13. LSU (#99)

14. Georgia (#20)

15. Duke (#5)

16. Harvard (#5)

17. Wake Forest (#22)

18. Georgia State (#69)

19. Chicago (#3)

20. Penn (#4)

21. Illinois (#43)

22. Baylor (#49)

23. Washington & Lee (#40)

24. Liberty (#135)

25. Vanderbilt (#16)

In addition to the analysis, the study surveyed the overperforming and underperforming law schools on their approach to bar preparation. Ultimately, the report found a wide disparity in the curricular and extracurricular activities reported—not just between under and overperforming schools, but also within the cohort of overperforming schools. This suggests that a variety of support systems can effectively support students in passing the bar and that there is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

However, there were some interesting shared practices within the cohort of overperforming schools:

• Overperforming schools focused much more on first-year bar pass rather than the ultimate pass rate (pass rate within two years).

• Overperforming schools did not rely on entering students’ academic credentials to predict bar success. They acknowledge that there are many other factors, including student distraction and time constraints due to work, life, or other priorities, and/or the financial costs of law school or bar prep courses. The top performing schools attempt to mitigate these barriers directly, with resources that include academic support and bar prep programming.

• The top programs also targeted students at risk for bar failure based on first year GPA, rather than on their academic credentials prior to law school.

• Overperforming schools created an environment, an ethos, where faculty, staff, and students all believed that they could educate/be educated at the school for first-time bar success.

Law Schools Incorporate Student Development Programs to Drive Student Wellbeing and Career Readiness

Earlier this month Bloomberg Law released the results from its second annual Law Student Preparedness Survey. And the results on student wellbeing were… not great. The survey, administered in December 2022, showed that over half of the 1,000 students reported that their wellbeing worsened slightly (32 percent) or significantly (26 percent) during the fall 2022 semester. Additionally, most of the law students, over three-quarters, reported experiencing mental or physical health problems due to law school related issues: 77 percent experienced anxiety, 71 percent experienced disrupted sleep, and 51 percent experienced depression. Just 11 percent said they did not experience a mental or physical health issue due to law school. 

Luckily, more law programs, recognized by Bloomberg Law’s Innovation Program, are creating programs to offer better support to students in terms of their law school experience and career readiness. Each of the schools named as a finalist also track the student outcomes related to their programs via qualitative and quantitative data, ensuring that the programs are actually bolstering student development and not just paying lip service to the idea. 

We’ve highlighted a few of the programs recognized for innovation in student development below, and the full list is available on Bloomberg Law. You can also find Bloomberg Law’s lists for law school innovation in other categories (technology, business, pedagogy, etc.). 

Elon University School of Law: Elon offers a redesigned curriculum with an emphasis on experiential learning, an academic period of seven (rather than eight) semesters, and lower tuition. The shortened law school year allows graduating students to take the bar in February and commence professional life earlier. Elon Law’s Interim Dean Alan Woodlief, in an interview with Bloomberg Law, described the school’s improved admissions, bar passage, and career placement rates since adopting the new curriculum. “These data points demonstrate a strong demand for law schools that place student needs and development at the center of their approach to educating future attorneys, and we’re proud of the strides we have made together as a community in our noble mission,” he said.

Fordham University School of Law: Fordham offers the Peer Mentoring and Leadership Program, which pairs third-year law students interested in being mentors with second-year students. The school identified the second-year period as a critical time for students, who are often under intense academic and career pressure. The benefits of the program include increased support of students in a high pressure period, cross-cultural understanding, growth in friendships and professional networks, and improved leadership skills for the mentors. The program’s founder, professor Linda Sugin, described the aims of the program to Bloomberg Law, “All the mentoring and leadership skills developed in the program are essential for lawyers—regardless of the type of work they do. All lawyers need to develop self-awareness, work cross-culturally, handle challenges and setbacks with resilience and equanimity, and care for their own well-being,” she said. 

The University of Tennessee College of Law: The University of Tennessee developed the Institute for Professional Leadership (IPL) to offer students a curriculum curated to develop legal and professional leaders. Specific leadership courses are combined with pro bono, public service, and career advancement opportunities, and events to develop students’ leadership skills and prepare them for careers in law, government, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations. The Interim Director for the IPL and law professor, Joan MacLeod Heminway described the reasoning behind the Institute’s creation to Bloomberg Law. "Leadership education in the law school setting fills a gap in the traditional program of legal education. Robust leadership education in law schools focuses students on intentional introspection and the identification and development of skills, values, professional identity, and career paths through interdisciplinary programming beyond a strictly legal context,” she said.