Who here passed the mini bar or real bar and is from a non ABA school?

[Why do you want to be a lawyer?]

Why do you want to be a lawyer?

Money

 29 (20.9%)

Respect & Prestige

 27 (19.4%)

Power

 8 (5.8%)

To Practice Law

 30 (21.6%)

To Improve My Present Profession

 8 (5.8%)

To Help Others

 28 (20.1%)

To Avoid Leaving School

 2 (1.4%)

My Mom Made Me

 2 (1.4%)

Because I'm the Smartest Person in the World

 4 (2.9%)

Don't Know

 1 (0.7%)

Don't Understand the Question

 0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 62

[jd2008]

I am just curious to see the result folks, I am a "studying" answer myself. What are you?

[taftJD]

I celebrated my first anniversary as an attorney by working on a family law case (pro bono) a patent office action and filing 2 trademarks.

I am still a full-time engineer, just not ready to do this full-time yet.

I went to a DL school (Taft) and passed the California Bar exam on my first attempt in Feb 07

[Law Claw]

Check out the bar's site if you're interested in the statistics. It break's the results down very well, including
ABA schools, Accr bar examiner's schools, correspondence, and just unaccredited schools.

Without question ABA approved schools have the highest pass rates. But a solid second is correspondence schools...especially Concord, taft, and a christian one called oakbrook. Taft boasts a 75% pass rate for all takers(25% dont pass no matter how many times they tried). This, however, is quite high considering that these three schools best even bar examiner schools. Thus its easy to follow that the quality of the education is there. Also remember that the quality of the student, in general, is not as likely to be the "type A" wiz, the one who nearly aces everything as an undergrad in order to attend the best law school. I believe the ABA pass rates have more to do with the quality of their students than from the quality of their school. If we took all of stanford's 1l's and put them at concord, I believe you'd see about a ninety percent pass rate for that class.

I've noticed that all unaccredited schools in california have an absolute DISMAL pass rate. Beware.

These statistics are hard to ignore and I believe it's just a matter of time before online schools start receiving more recongnition.

[Undisputed]

?I wonder who answered power?

It must of been those poor little girls and boys who were bullied in school.

[Undisputed]

I've noticed that all unaccredited schools in california have an absolute DISMAL pass rate. Beware.
 

Brought to you by the THE LAW CLAAAWWWW!!!

[Sako]

... Also remember that the quality of the student, in general, is not as likely to be the "type A" wiz, the one who nearly aces everything as an undergrad in order to attend the best law school. ...

I think you are making a mistake on that point.  The online schools differ from the regional, state, and non-ABA brick and mortar schools.  If you have a student at a brick and mortar school that is only state accredited, they likely did not have the academic skill to get into a better school.  In the case of the online/corr. schools though, you add another class of student, the ones who just don't have the time to leave their current profession and go to a physical law school.  As an example, when I went to CA to take the Baby Bar, I was talking with some other students.  One was a heart surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, one was a CPA and investigator for the IRS, one was in federal law enforcement, and I have a MS in Software Development.  None of us were failures as students, we just had families, and couldn't drop everything for law school.  I suspect that the higher rate of Bar passage for correspondence/online schools is due to this group.

[DO/JD]

... Also remember that the quality of the student, in general, is not as likely to be the "type A" wiz, the one who nearly aces everything as an undergrad in order to attend the best law school. ...

I think you are making a mistake on that point.  The online schools differ from the regional, state, and non-ABA brick and mortar schools.  If you have a student at a brick and mortar school that is only state accredited, they likely did not have the academic skill to get into a better school.  In the case of the online/corr. schools though, you add another class of student, the ones who just don't have the time to leave their current profession and go to a physical law school.  As an example, when I went to CA to take the Baby Bar, I was talking with some other students.  One was a heart surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, one was a CPA and investigator for the IRS, one was in federal law enforcement, and I have a MS in Software Development.  None of us were failures as students, we just had families, and couldn't drop everything for law school.  I suspect that the higher rate of Bar passage for correspondence/online schools is due to this group.

I could not agree more

[Cop-Attorney]

I am wondering the same things.  I truly want to practice law after I retire from police work.  But I have nine years until retirement and believe that Distance learning will provide me with the freedom to go to law school while I am still working.  I can then take the bar and practice after that.  Any advice?  I'm looking closely at Northwestern California school of law.

[jonlevy]

Graduated from Taft in 1991, passed the California Bar in 1992 and was getting court appointed public defender cases within 6 months, have since become a member of the DC Bar and licensed as a solicitor in England and specialize in international law:

http://www.avvo.com/attorneys/jonathan-levy-705127.html