To pass the bar exam in California and qualify as a lawyer, you have to meet a pretty high threshold—the second highest in the nation behind Delaware's. But some in the legal world argue that the state should lower its standards because the current system discriminates against minorities.
David Faigman, chancellor and dean of the U.C. Hastings College of the Law, told KCBS Radio that he believes the bar exam needs to be reformed.
“I think we’ve come to the point where the exam is failing, and it’s not doing what it claims to do, and we really need to rethink it,” he said.
Faigman believes the state bar should move its so-called “cut score” down to match the national median, because there’s no research that the higher minimum passing score produces better attorneys.
“The fundamental assumption of the California bar has yet to be validated,” he said, “yet we have a pass threshold that systematically discriminates against historically protected minority candidates.”
What’s more, the exam designed for a different, pre-Internet generation, when rote memorization had more value in practice.
“We now have the smart phone generation,” he said. “They don’t memorize the way they used to.”
There’s some movement among professors to teach students how to be good lawyers, instead of just teaching to a test.
Sammy Chang, who graduated from Hastings last year, said that California students are too scared to take those classes, for fear they won’t be prepared for the bar. Instead, they’re opting for more test prep, which can cost thousands of dollars—leaving those with resources more prepared than others. Chang pointed out that first-generation immigrants, in particular, can be at a disadvantage.
If those classes on non-profit law and public policy aren’t well attended, some argue that means future lawyers won’t be as well prepared for the job.
“It’s a big hardship for us,” said Chang. “We’ve been through law school to be able to do things we love, but we’re focused on trying to focus on the subjects that are on the bar, rather than actually the real world.”