More than 90 percent of Liberty University School of Law graduates who took the Virginia State Bar examination this year passed the test, according to figures released by the school this week.
“Certainly, I was elated at the news, but we’ve set the bar very high for our students,” said Mathew Staver, dean of the law school. “We challenge them to achieve above the goals that they set, and they always come through.”
Results from the examination show that 94 percent, or 16 of the 17 students who took the test in late July, passed, he said.
According to the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners’ Web site, 79.7 percent of all people who took the Virginia Bar Exam in July passed.
In addition to the 17 students who took the test in state, Staver said 20 more took the test in 12 other states. Results from those exams are still coming in, but are expected in November.
“I suspect that at the end of the day, that level will stay at 94 or 95 percent,” he said, noting that the Virginia exam is known as being one of the most difficult.
Liberty Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said he hopes the high pass rates will help attract more students to the program.
“It’s quite an achievement for them to have a passage rate so high with only the second graduating class, so we’re proud of what they’ve accomplished,” he said.
Last year’s inaugural class of Liberty law students passed the exam at a rate of roughly 89 percent, Staver said.
Currently, 220 students are enrolled in the law school, he said, and this year’s entering class was composed of 109 students.
Liberty’s School of Law opened in August 2004. It received provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association in 2006.
Now that the provisional accreditation has been in place for two years, he said, the school may apply for full accreditation, and plans to do so in March.
“A lot of things are coming together,” he said.
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