AALS Hot Topic Program

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Session Type: AALS Hot Topic Programs

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: Hilton San Francisco Union Square

Room: Continental Ballroom 6

Floor: Ballroom Level

In October 2016, the ABA Council approved a new, more demanding accreditation standard on bar pass rates. This comes at a time of significant declines in bar pass rates over recent administrations of the Multistate and Uniform Bar Exam (MBE and UBE), placing increased pressures on law school admissions decisions and bar preparation. At the same time, some jurisdictions are considering experiential curricular preconditions for licensure beyond the six-unit requirement recently added by the ABA, reflecting a judgment that the public needs better protection than currently offered by bar exam passage. They also highlight the tension between what students need to learn in order to be competent lawyers and what students need to learn to achieve a passing bar exam score. In light of these new licensing pressures, this Roundtable will focus on three critical questions: How are legal educators responding to the new bar pass accreditation standard and declining bar exam scores? Does the current bar exam adequately test the knowledge, skills, and values that the public should be able to expect from a newly-licensed lawyer? How do we envision—and move toward creating—a more accurate measure in order to better protect the public?