4,851 pass July bar exam

Nearly 63 percent — 4,851 people — of 7,716 applicants passed the July 1997 bar exam, the bar announced last month. The overall pass rate exam is up from 55.9 percent from the July 1996 exam.

Preliminary statistics show that the pass rate for first-time applicants was 80.2 percent of the 4,670 applicants who attended law schools approved by the American Bar Association; 48.5 percent of the 575 applicants from schools accredited by the Committee of Bar Examiners but not approved by the ABA; and 43.4 percent of the 76 applicants who studied law at unaccredited law schools.

For repeating applicants, the pass rates were 36.7 percent of the 761 applicants from ABA-approved law schools, 21.3 percent of the 621 applicants from schools accredited by the committee, and 10.5 percent of the 162 applicants from unaccredited law schools.

The pass list for the July exam can be found on the State Bar’s home page at http://www.calbar.org. The list is organized both alphabetically and by zip code.