News Releases

State Bar announces results for July 2015 California Bar Examination

Contact: Laura Ernde

415-538-2283

barcomm@calbar.ca.gov

 

•  July 2015 Bar Exam Results

•  California Bar Exam Pass Rate Summaries

NOTE TO EDITORS:  The pass list for the July 2015 California Bar Examination can be found on and downloaded from the State Bar’s website: www.calbar.ca.gov on Nov. 22, 2015 at 6 a.m. The list will be organized both alphabetically and by ZIP code.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 20, 2015 6 p.m. – The State Bar of California's Committee of Bar Examiners reported today that 46.6 percent of the applicants passed the July 2015 General Bar Examination (GBX). If the 3,882 people who passed the July 2015 exam satisfy other requirements for admission, they will become members of the State Bar.

Preliminary statistical analyses show that of the 8,323 applicants who took the GBX, 70.1 percent were first-time takers. The passing rate for the 5,838 first-time applicants was 60.0 percent overall. The passing rate for the 2,485 applicants repeating the examination was 16.0 percent overall.

Preliminary statistical analyses show the first-time and repeater percent passing the GBX (rounded to whole numbers) by law school type as follows:

School Type	First-Timers	Repeaters
California ABA	68%	24%
Out-of-State ABA	59%	16%
California Accredited (but not ABA)	21%	8%
Unaccredited: Fixed-Facility	21%	0%
Unaccredited: Correspondence	29%	5%
Unaccredited Distance Learning	18%	11%

The applicants not included in the above totals either were attorneys admitted in other states who either chose or were required to take the GBX, attorneys admitted in foreign jurisdictions, law students in the Law Office/Judge’s Chambers Study Program or law students who qualified to take the GBX through four years of law study. More detailed statistics, including passing rates by individual law schools, will be made available in approximately four to six weeks and published on the State Bar’s website at http://www.calbar.ca.gov/admissions.

The three-day General Bar Examination is given twice a year in February and July. The exam consists of three sections: a multiple-choice Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), six essay questions and two performance tests that are designed to assess an applicant's ability to apply general legal knowledge to practical tasks. The mean scaled MBE score in California was 1424 compared with the national average of 1399.

In addition, the committee announced that 144 (34.9 percent) of the 413 lawyers who took the Attorneys' Examination passed. Out of the total taking the Attorneys’ Examination, 19 were disciplined lawyers who took the examination as a condition of reinstatement; one disciplined lawyer passed.

The Attorneys' Examination, which consists of the essay and performance test sections of the GBX, is open to lawyers who have been admitted to the active practice of law in good standing for at least four years in another United States jurisdiction.

Successful applicants who have satisfied other requirements for admission – those who have not been reported by local district attorneys for being in arrears with family or child support payments, who have received a positive moral character determination and who have passed the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination – may either take the Attorney's Oath individually or participate in admissions ceremonies held throughout the state during December 2015.