Phoenix law school lags on passage of bar exam

A private Phoenix law school placed on probation by the American Bar Association had the second-lowest passage rate on the bar exam in the country for its 2015 graduates, according to newly released data by the ABA.

The accrediting body for law schools on Thursday released, for the first time, “ultimate” bar passage rates, showing the percentage of graduates who passed the bar within two years of graduation, either on their first try or on subsequent attempts. Previously, the ABA published only rates of those passing the test on their first attempt.

Arizona Summit Law School ranked second-to-last among the 202 ABAapproved law schools, with 60 percent of 2015 graduates passing the bar exam within two years. The average for all schools was 88 percent. Only the University of Detroit Mercy School of

Law, a private Catholic school, posted a lower passage rate, 56 percent.

Barry Currier, the ABA’s managing director of accreditation and legal education, said in a statement that the data provides a snapshot of how each school’s students are doing over a twoyear span.

The ABA won’t use the two-year rates in evaluating whether law schools are complying with its standards because that formula uses a longer period of time.

“But these reports provide important consumer information for students considering whether and where to attend law school and for others with an interest in legal education,” he said.

Ultimate bar passage rates are considered important because they include students who don’t pass the exam on the first try but go onto pass at some point. A majority of states require graduates to pass the exam in order to practice law.

The two other law schools in Arizona posted passage rates well above the national average. Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law had a 93 percent passage rate over two years, while the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law was at 86 percent.

Two schools posted 100 percent passage rates within two years: Baylor Law School and the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Don Lively, president of Arizona Summit Law School, said the school’s ultimate bar passage rate for all graduates is 75 percent. This percentage covers a longer time span than the two-year data released by the ABA this week.

“We do bring in people who are in catch-up mode due to either economic or historical disadvantages. So it’s not surprising they need more than one opportunity to pass the bar examination, and ABA standards accommodate that,” he said.

Arizona Summit Law School in downtown Phoenix was put on probation in March 2017 for being out of compliance with ABA standards for bar exam passage rates and remains on probation after the ABA notified the school in January that it was out of compliance concerning its finances.

The ABA warned the school last year that it could impose additional sanctions, “up to and including withdrawal of (ABA) approval,” if conditions didn’t improve.

If Arizona Summit were to lose its accreditation, its graduates wouldn’t be able to sit for the bar exam in Arizona and many other states.

The school once boasted high passage rates on the bar. But the rates have dropped in the past few years. Only one out of four Arizona Summit graduates passed the test on the first try, according to the most recent test results released in October. By comparison, three out of four passed the exam at ASU and UA law schools.

School officials have said they are making every effort to comply with ABA standards.

Arizona Summit interim Dean Penny Willrich could not be reached for comment Thursday. But she said in an October interview with The Arizona Republic that the school has raised its admission standards for incoming students, requiring higher grade-point averages and higher scores on the Law School Admission Test.

GPA and LSAT scores are two factors that can influence how well students do in law school and whether they pass the bar exam after graduation.

Willrich said the school has increased rigor in the classroom and in grading, and adjusted curriculum to make it more like traditional law schools.

Students are strongly encouraged to enroll in bar-preparation programs, she said.

“My goal is to take us back to a time when we were very successful on the bar and had 75 and 80 percent (pass) range,” she said in October. “I think we can get there with all the changes that have taken place. But of course, it’s going to take a little bit of time.”

Arizona Summit is one of three schools started by InfiLaw Corp., a forprofit company.

The InfiLaw schools were founded more than a decade ago with the mission of diversifying the legal profession. Arizona Summit has won awards for its diverse student population, which is about 41 percent minority — higher than either ASU’s or the UA’s law schools.

But law-school watchdogs have criticized the school for admitting too many students with lower LSAT scores over the years.

The school started in 2005 with 27 students in its inaugural class but added hundreds more over time. Enrollment reached the 700s by 2011 and peaked at around 1,000 by 2013. Student enrollment has since declined to around 200.