Online law school scores 60 percent bar exam pass rate
Concord University School of Law, the exclusively online
law school that is seeking accreditation for its program, registered a 60 percent
pass rate on the February bar exam.
“I think it’s a giant first step,” exulted
Dean Jack Goetz. “If the world is looking for outcomes, this was a home
run.”
The school’s first 10 graduates took the exam and six
passed. The overall pass rate for the February exam was 37.3 percent and the
pass rate for first time applicants who attended schools accredited by the Committee
on Bar Examiners but not by the ABA was 22.4 percent.
Concord has been trying to win State Bar accreditation, and
the committee created a task force to study the issue of accrediting online
law schools. Its report has not been released, but it is expected to take a
wait-and-see approach.
Goetz said the bar exam results were just a “first-time
indicator,” and critics of the Concord program likely will say more results
are needed, as well as a track record on success in the profession, before accreditation
is granted.
“But perhaps we can be a little more bullish on the
disparity that exists between our exam results and those of State Bar-accredited
law schools,” he said.
One Concord graduate is already general counsel for his company,
another plans to open a divorce mediation center, one is an intern in a district
attorney office. “Others are finding similar receptiveness in the legal
comunity,” Goetz said.
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