What’s Wrong with Bar Exams?

At a recent gathering of law deans, Dean Darby Dickerson (Texas Tech) identified the deficiencies:

Dean Dickerson also identified a number of problems with the bar exam: excessive emphasis on memorization (which doesn’t accurately reflect the practice of law, where you look things up); testing too many topics (when lawyers need to know just a few); insufficient emphasis on lawyering skills (although some bars are improving on this front); insufficient portability from state to state (although the spread of the Uniform Bar Exam could help); not letting people take the bar until after graduation (but note the Arizona pilot program); and the high cost of bar exam prep courses.

You can read a lot more on the concerns of law deans here, at Above the Law.

(ljs)