Page 12 - NYLS Magazine • 2014 • Vol. 33, No. 1

By Ruth Singleton

BAr PreP ProGrAms:

A resoundinG success

“No other law school offered its students more support and more

action-oriented programming before and during the bar exam.”

– Petal Hwang ’13

Last year, New York Law attack” for each graduate taking the bar Jump Start is a bar exam prep course for
exam. In 2013, the School established a students about to graduate, taught by
School’s pass rate for irst-
time July NewYork bar Jump Start program, which got 3Ls and instructors from commercial bar prep
4L Evening students focused on the exam companies, such as Pieper and BarBri. In
exam takers surged by 13.6
several months before Commencement. 2013, classes were held on ive weekend
points to 83.4 percent.That he School also added more classes of days over the course of several weekends

gain was the largest among New York Law in National Perspectives, in March and April. Associate Dean for
all of the law schools in the
an ofering in the regular curriculum, Academic Afairs Deborah N. Archer,
state, and it followed four which covers much of the material along with other faculty members,

consecutive years of decline.
required for the New York bar exam. oversaw the program, and Professor
hese programs were among the featured Kirk Burkhalter ’04 served as Bar Prep

Much of the credit for the rebound goes initiatives mentioned in the Law School’s Coordinator. he aim was to familiarize
to programs that NYLS developed in Strategic Plan issued last summer.
students with the exam and its various

2012 and implemented in 2013. In 2012, sections, including the New York portion
Dean Anthony W. Crowell launched the Quoted in the New York Law Journal, (consisting of essays and the Multistate
Dean Crowell said that the NYLS
Foundations for Success Task Force with Performance Test), and the multiple
the express purpose of improving the
graduates “went in to the bar prep period choice portion. he program also
feeling more conident and having less of
bar pass rate. Dean Crowell established reviewed the substantive areas of law that
the Task Force in order to analyze and a learning curve. We’re very pleased, and are covered, including wills and trusts,
it’s a terriic step in the right direction.”
prepare a focused, personalized “plan of
evidence, contracts, New York practice,
criminal law, and criminal procedure.

10 New York Law schooL magaziNe • 2014 • VOL. 33, NO. 1