We're steeped in racist and classist exclusion and perhaps those who now insist the exam must be protected at all costs don't realize this.
Well, you do now. The truth is being told.
With this truth comes power and incentive to make change NOW.
No reason exists to wait.
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"South Carolina offered diploma privilege until 1950. When the first class of African Americans was set to graduate from law school, a bill was proposed in the South Carolina General Assembly to require bar passage for the purpose
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of blocking 'negroes and some undesirable whites' from entering the profession. This was not unique. The creation of the bar exam coincides with the first Civil Rights Act in 1875. After three Black lawyers were unintentionally granted membership in the ABA in 1914,
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their membership was revoked and a meeting was convened to discuss keeping the profession 'pure.' That’s when the push for the bar exam to be mandatory for all took off, as did change to the standards for bar passage."
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"'While a person’s race cannot predict whether he will pass the bar, his race may expose him to conditions that make passing the bar less likely.' Conditions like working while studying or caring for family members that disproportionately affect people of color and women
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are correlated with lower pass rates. Even accounting for these factors, however, we shouldn’t forget that racial bias was intentionally built into many of the tests we consider 'standardized.'"
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"We assume that the bar exam ensures effective lawyers because every year people fail it, and those people must therefore not be qualified to practice law. But the failure rate fails to prove that, unless the bar exam is effective at measuring a lawyer’s abilities."
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What do we know?
•11.3 percent of malpractice claims are related to substantive law.
•1 percent of ethics violations relate to competence.
•94.8 percent of test takers eventually pass the bar exam.
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•Zero: correlation between test results and success as a lawyer.
"Numerous studies have shown a strong correlation among LSAT scores, law school GPA, and bar exam results."
AND
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"The study found no meaningful correlation between LSAT scores or GPA and effective lawyering. It did, however, confirm that LSAT scores and GPA as predictors do disproportionately harm women and people of color."
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"If the goal and purpose of the bar exam is to protect the public and ensure effective lawyers by excluding those who aren’t effective, then it is, in my opinion, a failure.
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Alternatively, I propose that we achieve those goals by helping new lawyers identify their strengths and growth areas. Let’s make all prospective admittees take these personality assessments,
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not so that we can exclude them, but so they and the mentors they choose to share the results with will have valuable insight on how to become a better lawyer."
YES 👊
Thank you for your insight and advocacy, @jordanlcouch!
#makelawbetter
13/end
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