KU Law alumni ace their bars

All 2021 School of Law alumni passed the bar exam within two years of graduation, a remarkable 100% “ultimate bar passage rate” that topped all other 195 law schools approved by the American Bar Association.

Although stipulations allow for four attempts at the bar exam within two years—the ABA maintains an accreditation requirement that 75% of graduates must pass a bar exam within two years of earning their diploma—the optimal standard is passing on the first attempt, which 92% of KU Law grads achieved in 2023.

Dean Stephen Mazza cites the school’s Free Bar Prep Program as a key to KU’s bar exam success. Thanks to alumni funding, KU Law is one of the few schools nationally to offer its graduates a commercial bar review course at no cost.

“While other law schools may offer similar programs,” Mazza says, “they build the cost for the prep program into tuition.”

Thanks in part to KU’s institutional focus on removing obstacles to ensure that legal education is attainable for all students, National Jurist magazine ranks KU Law No. 4 on its national Best Value list.