Bar Examinations and Bar Passage
Guests in Another's House: An Analysis of Racially Disparate Bar Performance
Document Type
Law Review Article
Publication Date
1-1996
Keywords
lawyer demographics, bar passage correlates, enrolled student demographics, race and ethnicity
Abstract
"Bias in the examination process has been observed in one form or another for over sixty years, but any serious effort to recognize or correct this problem has been stymied by three interrelated factors. First, there is a scarcity of comprehensive, accurate statistical data to confirm racial disparities in bar passage rates over time and across jurisdictions. Second, courts consistently demonstrate an unwillingness to consider judicial remedies as an appropriate response to any aspect of the disparate bar passage problem. Lastly, there is a surprising lack of thorough, sensitive analysis of the causes and the sources of such racially disparate bar performance. This Article analyzes each of these three interrelated factors" (724).
