James Keller Herbert, Jr.
February 16, 1938 - December 5, 2023
OXNARD — “We’re on the air! We’re on the air!”
Jim Herbert’s trademark beginning to every Bar Review lecture went silent Tuesday, December 5, 2023.
Jim helped literally thousands of students pass the California
Bar Exam to become attorneys.
James Keller Herbert, Jr. was born in 1938, the son of James Keller Herbert, Sr. and Mary Louise Carey.
Jim graduated from Stanford University and from Boalt Hall, Berkeley Law School at the University of California. He practiced Law at Richards, Watson, and Gershon in Los Angeles. He spearheaded the legal work for the Save Our Coastline fight for the city of Palos Verdes. “We were fortunate to have you as our ‘Gunslinger.’”
As a law professor, he taught at Loyola and the University of Pacific
McGeorge Law School.
In 1966, he began lecturing for the Bay Area Review course while he practiced law. Eventually, he left the practice to devote full time to lecturing about the law. In addition to the main course lectures, he created the Herbert Writing Course. Later, with his wife Carol, he developed Intensive Courses for the Multistate and Performance portions of the Bar Exam.
They ultimately left BAR, which had merged with BRI, to start BarPassers in 1984. In addition to their live and video courses in California, they established video locations throughout the Western States. Jim traveled throughout the country lecturing and helping students nationwide to prepare for the Bar Exam. “No teaching performance I had ever experienced or would ever experience came close to your performance every day you taught,” Ben Bycel said in expressing his appreciation. Ben worked with Jim in establishing the Santa Barbara College of Law.
Jim taught classes and served on the Board of Directors at San Joaquin College of Law during the years that Carol was Dean of the law school. He established a scholarship fund and made financial contributions that allowed the school to pursue ABA accreditation.
After the sale of BarPassers, Jim and Carol established the Herbert Wetland Prairie Preserve in Tulare County, California. It is now a part of the Sequoia Riverlands Trust.
Jim died peacefully at home with his wife Carol and his sister Sharon, a renowned retired professor of archeology from the University of Michigan. He is survived by his two children, Michael and Mary Frances, and his seven stepchildren, John, Katherine, Paul, Barry, Laura, Jefferson and Amanda, as well as numerous grandchildren.
The family urges anyone who wishes to honor Jim to contribute in his memory to their favorite charity or to plant a tree.
His interment will be private.