Three law schools have managed to comply with the American Bar Association’s (ABA) accreditation standard requiring a two-year bar passage rate of at least 75%. The ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar recently announced that Ave Maria School of Law, the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, and Vermont Law School have met the requirement.
In December, the ABA released notices of noncompliance for these three schools based on their 2019 graduates’ two-year pass rates. For the Ave Maria School of Law, that class had a two-year pass rate of 67.21%. However, its class of 2020 had a two-year bar passage rate of 88.41%, which determined its current compliance with the standard this year.
John Czarnetzky, the law school’s dean and CEO, attributed the class’s success to the entire faculty, including their bar preparation faculty and staff, who have developed a rigorous program to ensure students’ success on the bar exam. Czarnetzky anticipates similar success for their future classes.
The University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law’s class of 2020 had a two-year bar passage rate of 80.6%, compared to 66.67% for the class of 2019. Similarly, Vermont Law School’s two-year pass rates were 67.54% for its 2019 graduates and 76.61% for its 2020 graduates.
Interim dean Beth McCormack of Vermont Law School mentioned that the 2019 two-year pass rate was an outlier. The faculty and staff will continue to support students. They are also working on curriculum changes for the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ NextGen bar exam, which is set to launch in July 2026.
Moreover, the council decided that Hofstra University Maurice A. Deane School of Law, which received a notice in December for being out of compliance with a faculty and staff diversity standard, has demonstrated compliance. According to its 2021 Standard 509 Information Report, the Hofstra University law school had 47 full-time faculty members, of which 23 were men, 24 were women, and five identified as people of color. It also had 81 faculty members who were not full-time, and out of that group, 57 were men, 24 were women, and seven were people of color.
Based on data from the 2022 Standard 509 Information Report, the number of full-time male faculty remained the same, but there are now 27 women and seven people of color in the group. For faculty who do not work full time, 50 are men, 27 are women, and five are people of color, according to the data.
Compliance with the ABA’s accreditation standards is crucial for law schools to maintain their accreditation status. The ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar periodically reviews and evaluates law schools’ compliance with its standards to ensure that they maintain their academic rigor and standards of excellence.