FAILING UPWARD - The second installment of The Big Fail—Law.com’s four-part series examining falling bar pass rates and their impact on the legal industry—looks at how law schools are trying to get their pass rates back up. Karen Sloan reports that schools are revamping their first-year coursework to emphasize topics tested on the bar; identifying struggling students early on to get them additional support; and even making bar preparation courses mandatory during the third year. Will those initiatives be enough to stanch the bar exam bleeding?
HIDING HARVEY? - A Manhattan judge is set today to consider whether to close off public access to an upcoming hearing in Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault case. The disgraced movie mogul’s defense counsel, Harvard Law professor Ronald Sullivan, has asked that the public be excluded from a Friday hearing to determine whether prosecutors may introduce evidence of prior bad acts by the defendant. Sullivan has argued that a public airing would make it difficult for Weinstein to get a fair trial, and prosecutors agree. But media organizations want into the courtroom.
