With a special study commission having finished its review and submitted its recommendations for updating the Indiana Bar Exam, the Indiana Supreme Court is now asking for public comment about the proposed changes.
Finding the Indiana Bar Exam places a “cognitive overload” on examinees, the special commission convened a year ago to study and recommend changes to the test is suggesting the Indiana Supreme Court reduce the number of subjects tested either by cutting the topics on the Indiana Essay Examination or by switching to the Uniform Bar Examination.
As the Indiana legal profession re-evaluates its bar exam in light of slumping pass rates, a leader in bar examinations and bar admissions offered some insight into testing and provided some advice, as well as some warnings, about making changes.
As the Indiana legal profession re-evaluates its bar exam in light of slumping pass rates, a leader in bar examinations and bar admissions offered some insight into testing and provided some advice, as well as some warnings, about making changes.
Indiana’s newest attorneys were congratulated on their admission to the bar and welcomed to the practice of law Wednesday with soaring rhetoric and practical advice from their colleagues in the bar and on the bench.
Following the appeals process, the overall pass rate for the July 2019 Indiana bar exam has risen to 3 percentage points to 65%, a repeat of the pre- and post-appeal pass rates for the July 2018 exam.
Preliminary results released Monday for the July 2019 bar exam indicate the overall pass rate likely will remain between 60 and 65 percent even as the rate for repeat takers could hit a historical low of 20 percent.
Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush will serve a second term as head of the Hoosier judiciary after a unanimous reappointment vote Wednesday from the Judicial Nominating Commission.
As the newest group of Indiana attorneys raised their right hands and took their admission oaths Tuesday, they were reminded that just as they needed to achieve this success, they will continue through their careers to need a little help from their friends. The 120 individuals who passed the February 2019 Indiana Bar Exam were admitted to the Indiana Supreme Court as well as the Northern and Southern Indiana District Courts.
As predicted, the February 2019 bar exam results rose after the appeals process, but the overall passage rate of 50 percent is still the lowest in at least the past 17 years.
The 2016 graduates from two Indiana law schools have exceeded the national two-year bar passage rate of 88.57 percent, according to recently released data from the American Bar Association.
At a time when the median tenure of a law school dean is 3.6 years, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Dean Andrew Klein will have served nearly double that at seven years when he returns to the classroom next year. He will also have been the law school’s second longest-serving dean in the past 60 years.
As the Indiana legal profession begins to draw conclusions from the February 2019 bar exam results in which fewer than half of test-takers passed, it might want to keep in mind Yogi Berra’s observation: It ain’t over till it’s over.
Indiana’s February bar exam results continued their downward slide with the 2019 overall pass rate dropping to 45 percent, the lowest rate recorded in the past 17 years, according to results released Monday.
A 14-member study commission appointed to review the Indiana Bar Exam in light of the ongoing decline in passage rates will hold a series of 10 monthly meetings, all open to the public, at the Indiana Statehouse beginning next week.
The American Bar Association House of Delegates has again rejected a proposal that would have required at least 75 percent of law graduates pass their bar exam within two years of graduation.
Proposals dealing with bar passage standards, firearms in schools, illegal immigration and LGBT discrimination are among several topics to be discussed later this month at the 2019 American Bar Association Midyear Meeting.
Accredited law schools could soon be operating under a revised bar passage standard if a proposal recently adopted by the Council of the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar moves forward. The council’s adopted proposal revises Standard 316 to require at least 75 percent of a law school’s graduates who sit for a bar examination to pass within two years of their graduation date.
Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law students headed to the library for final exam cramming were met with a pleasant surprise when several furry, four-footed friends greeted them at the door.
As bar exam passage rates continue to decline and a majority of states move to a Uniform Bar Examination, the Indiana Supreme Court is taking steps to determine if the Hoosier state should follow suit and change its gateway test for admission to the Indiana bar.