Sturm College of Law News
DU Law Bar Pass Rate Hits an All Time High of 91% & Ranks 53rd in Super Lawyer Graduates
November 20, 2009
Upon Further Review: DU Bar Passage Hits Its Highest Rate In Modern Times
Leaders at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law were beyond pleased when the initial results of the July 2009 Bar Exam passage rates were released in October.
And then, those results got better, moving higher when appeals of those who just missed passage were complete. In the final tally, released Nov. 17, DU’s passage rate hit 91 percent, the highest DU passage rate in modern times. The new passage rate should be posted on the Colorado Supreme Court’s Web site soon.
For a program that saw a passage rate dip below 60 percent just a few years ago in a February exam, the rate completes a turnaround that interim Dean Martin Katz believes is just the beginning.
“We’ve gotten good news followed by better news,” Katz says. “The entire faculty has taken the bar passage rate quite seriously and recognized that we wanted to do something about it. There is a renewed emphasis on taking steps to improve.”
In addition to the success of DU’s newest lawyers, the graduating class of 2009, the law school is relishing another dose of good news. The national magazine Super Lawyers’ newest law school rankings, issued this month, rank DU at number 53 in the country, and the highest ranked law school in Colorado. (See the rankings here.)
Katz says the high ranking is gratifying because Super Lawyers rates what’s really important: how successful DU law graduates are in their careers after school.
“We’re doing something right,” Katz says.
Achieving the new high in bar passage didn’t come by accident, he says. Katz and the faculty have worked for two years on building the passage rate, both by boosting admission standards to admit only students who have the best chance of succeeding in law school and passing the bar, but also by creating an entire program dedicated to passage.
Lecturer Scott Johns is director of the DU Bar Success Program. He says that while students are challenged throughout their years to learn their craft, they are also provided with intensive counseling and bar passage programs after they walk across the stage and accept a diploma.
Students are encouraged to devote the two months between graduation and the July bar exam to study and test preparation. Off campus, they are encouraged to avoid full-time work and dedicate themselves to study. And on campus, faculty conduct classes and lectures multiple times each week, followed by mock exams, writing assignments and personal coaching and reviews of student writing.
“A lot of it is building their confidence,” Johns says. “Students learn to think, ‘I can solve problems. I’ve got a good strategy for solving them and a good strategy for writing them down.’