By Staff
Wake Forest Law graduates had the highest overall bar passage rate (which includes repeaters) at 83% among North Carolina law schools for the North Carolina bar exam in July 2015. That’s compared with a state overall passage rate of 58%, according to the North Carolina Board of Law Examiners. The two-section exam includes essay questions designed to test knowledge of North Carolina law and multiple-choice questions that test general knowledge of U.S. law.
For first-time takers only, Wake Forest (82.5%) was in a close threesome with the law schools at Duke University (83%) and the University of North Carolina (%). The passage rate for most law schools in the state fell from July 2014, while Wake Forest Law’s passage rate increased by more than 3.5 percent.
Of Wake Forest’s 63 first-time bar exam takers, 52 passed, while five of six repeaters passed.
Dean Suzanne Reynolds credited the recent graduates’ hard work and enhanced bar preparation programs for the law school’s improved bar passage rate. “Congratulations to Assistant Dean for Academic Engagement Tracey Banks Coan, Professor Laura Graham (JD ’94) and Ruth Morton for their superb work on new programs and enhanced programs on bar preparation for first-time takers and repeaters,” she said. “Assistant Dean Coan will continue to study the data and fine-tune these efforts. She obviously put us on the right track.”
