Stephen Ferruolo of the University of San Diego, Jennifer Mnookin of UCLA, and David Faigman of UC Hastings.
Earlier this month, those who sat for the February bar exam in California received their results, and they weren’t pretty. Only 31% passed. For first-time takers who were graduates of ABA-accredited law schools in California, the pass rate was 45%. California (which, together with New York, has more bar applicants than any other state) has the second-highest cut score in the nation, after tiny Delaware.
Though California bar takers, on average, perform better than their counterparts elsewhere on the multistate bar exam (MBE), a far greater number fail as a direct consequence of California’s exceptionally high cut score.
