Thurgood Marshall School of Law Grads Hit 37-year High Mark on July Bar Exam

SP
Sandra Phoenix
Tue, Nov 16, 2010 12:37 PM

Texas Southern University News
November 10, 2010
Thurgood Marshall School of Law Grads Hit 37-year High Mark on July Bar Exam
Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law (TMSL) graduates hit a 37-year high mark on the July 2010 bar exam. The pass rate for graduates from TMSL who took the bar exam for the first time in July is 75.76 percent - the highest July pass rate for the school's first-time test-takers since 1974, according to the Texas Board of Law Examiners (BLE).
The overall passing rate for first-time test-takers who graduated from Texas' nine American Bar Association-accredited law schools is 86.37 percent, slightly lower than the 89.41 percent passing rate of Texas law school graduates on the July 2009 exam. For Thurgood Marshall's graduates, there is a second reason that exceeding a 75 percent passing rate on the bar exam is noteworthy, "We did want to reach this benchmark for ABA accreditation reasons; and we are setting this as our floor," says school of law Dean Dannye R. Holley.
In 2006, the ABA added bar exam passage rates as one of its criteria for law school accreditation. The ABA standard now requires a 75 percent passage rate among first-time test-takers in a given graduation year, or in three years sequentially or as a cumulative passage rate over five years.  "Because we are achieving that level, we are assured of satisfying one of those ABA bar passage rate standards," he says. Holley has been dean of the law school since September. He served as the law school's interim dean beginning in September 2009.
Holley attributes the continued improvement in the school's passing rate to a combination of law school programs and student effort. The law school has added curriculum emphasis on bar exam preparation, such as a sequential, three-semester writing course on preparing written work products such as briefs and memoranda, he says.
The school also offers the students bar exam workshops and courses on the Multistate Performance Test and Multistate Bar Exam portions of the bar exam, he says. "What I hope is that we can keep it going and maintain that [75 percent] level," he says. "We hope that with that kind of bar passage rate we will have a much better chance of convincing a broader spectrum of employers to consider our students for employment," he says.

SANDRA M. PHOENIX
Program Director
HBCU Library Alliance
sphoenix@hbculibraries.orgmailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org
www.hbculibraries.orghttp://www.hbculibraries.org/
404.592.4820

1438 West Peachtree Street NW
Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30309
Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis)
Fax: 404.892.7879
www.lyrasis.orghttp://www.lyrasis.org/
Honor the ancestors, honor the children.

Texas Southern University News November 10, 2010 Thurgood Marshall School of Law Grads Hit 37-year High Mark on July Bar Exam Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law (TMSL) graduates hit a 37-year high mark on the July 2010 bar exam. The pass rate for graduates from TMSL who took the bar exam for the first time in July is 75.76 percent - the highest July pass rate for the school's first-time test-takers since 1974, according to the Texas Board of Law Examiners (BLE). The overall passing rate for first-time test-takers who graduated from Texas' nine American Bar Association-accredited law schools is 86.37 percent, slightly lower than the 89.41 percent passing rate of Texas law school graduates on the July 2009 exam. For Thurgood Marshall's graduates, there is a second reason that exceeding a 75 percent passing rate on the bar exam is noteworthy, "We did want to reach this benchmark for ABA accreditation reasons; and we are setting this as our floor," says school of law Dean Dannye R. Holley. In 2006, the ABA added bar exam passage rates as one of its criteria for law school accreditation. The ABA standard now requires a 75 percent passage rate among first-time test-takers in a given graduation year, or in three years sequentially or as a cumulative passage rate over five years. "Because we are achieving that level, we are assured of satisfying one of those ABA bar passage rate standards," he says. Holley has been dean of the law school since September. He served as the law school's interim dean beginning in September 2009. Holley attributes the continued improvement in the school's passing rate to a combination of law school programs and student effort. The law school has added curriculum emphasis on bar exam preparation, such as a sequential, three-semester writing course on preparing written work products such as briefs and memoranda, he says. The school also offers the students bar exam workshops and courses on the Multistate Performance Test and Multistate Bar Exam portions of the bar exam, he says. "What I hope is that we can keep it going and maintain that [75 percent] level," he says. "We hope that with that kind of bar passage rate we will have a much better chance of convincing a broader spectrum of employers to consider our students for employment," he says. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Program Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.