UC Irvine School of Law's State Bar Pass Rate Ranks Second Among California Schools
IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 28, 2012—UC Irvine School of Law's inaugural graduating class passed the California bar exam at a rate of 90 percent, which places the school second in the state for bar pass rate.
Some 46 of 51 members of the Class of 2012 who took the California bar exam in July 2012 passed on their first try. In addition, three Class of 2012 members who took the bar exam in other states also passed.
UCI Law's 90 percent pass rate puts it behind only Stanford (94%) among the 21 California law schools accredited by the American Bar Association. The State Bar of California reported that 55.3 percent of total applicants passed the July exam. The average pass rate of California's ABA-accredited schools is 76.9 percent for first-time takers, according to bar statistics.
"We are extraordinarily pleased that our first graduating class had such a tremendous showing," said UCI Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. "It reflects not only the high academic merit of the students but also the strength of our educational program."
The three-day California bar exam, which is given in February and July, consists of a multiple-choice Multistate Bar Examination, six essay questions and two performance tests.
Nearly 200 people attended a Dec. 2 Law School swearing-in ceremony and reception for new state bar members at the UC Irvine Student Center.
Media Contact: Rex Bossert, Assistant Dean for Communications, rbossert@law.uci.edu, (949) 824-3063.
About UCI School of Law
UC Irvine School of Law seeks to create the ideal law school for the 21st century by doing the best job of training lawyers for the practice of law at the highest levels of the profession. Recruited from prestigious schools, the faculty ranked seventh in the country in scholarly impact in a recent study. The student body has overall admissions statistics comparable to those of student bodies at top 20 law schools. The school's innovative curriculum stresses hands-on learning, interdisciplinary study and public service.