Of New York state’s 15 law schools, nine had a decline in performance among first-time test takers for the July 2009 bar exam, in comparison to last year, when 10 of the 15 schools saw growth, according to New York Lawyer. Most schools only had drops of a few points, reducing the statewide average from an all-time high of 90 percent in 2008 to 88 percent this year.
New York Law School and Hofstra University School of Law had the most considerable decreases, 10 points and nine points, respectively. The only two schools with increases were Pace Law School, up one point over last year’s pass rate, and Syracuse University College of Law, up five points. Columbia Law School, New York University School of Law and Cornell Law School still performed in the top three, albeit in a different order this year—Columbia Law and NYU Law both scored 97 percent, while Cornell scored 94 percent, versus its 99 percent last year.
Some members of the deans’ staffs at New York Law and Hofstra Law are suggesting that perhaps due to the downturn in the economy, working students had less time to prepare for the exam this year. They will continue to explore the results and try to come up with an explanation.
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