Indiana law schools post changing fortunes in first-time bar passage rates
Newly released data from the American Bar Association shows the bar passage rate for first-time takers is improving at IU Maurer and Notre Dame but slipping at IU McKinney.
Newly released data from the American Bar Association shows the bar passage rate for first-time takers is improving at IU Maurer and Notre Dame but slipping at IU McKinney.
While various programs such as the Conference for Legal Education Opportunity encourage more diverse attorneys in the legal profession, a career in the law still seems unattainable for some. But many new attorneys are sharing their experiences with students in middle schools and high schools in hopes of showing what the profession has to offer.
While reflecting on our time writing this column, it became clear that we have not addressed an important aspect of our lives and future legal careers: We are women in the law. Obviously, the legal field has historically been dominated by men, and usually those who are well-off. In our time in law school we have seen a growing movement of greater diversity in the field, paving the way for different groups of people to make their mark in the profession and on the legal landscape.
Instead of spending his holiday season surrounded by all things merry and bright, immigration attorney Rudy Monterrosa spent days at what he described as an ominous place akin to a concentration camp. For the second year in a row, Monterrosa took a team to the Texas-Mexico border to offer free legal services to women and children seeking asylum in the United States. His experience this time, however, was quite different.
Law firms with offices and law schools with programs in China have been proactive in response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak. For example, Dentons has temporarily closed its office in Wuhan and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP told Indiana Lawyer it has closed some offices in China. Law schools in the state have suspended all staff and faculty travel to China.
While the political climate is being credited with boosting applications to law schools nationally, Indiana’s legal institutions might be immune to the hubbub since they have posted fluctuations but no discernable upward trend in the number of individuals applying for enrollment.
An expert in property law and former university vice provost at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is the third finalist for the dean’s position at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney.
David Thronson, an expert in international human rights law and director of the Talsky Center for Human Rights of Women and Children at Michigan State University College of Law, will be visiting Indianapolis Monday and Tuesday as the second finalist for the dean’s position at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
Milena Sterio, an associate dean at Cleveland State University Marshall College of Law and an expert in international law, is the first of the four candidates for the dean’s position at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law to visit the IUPUI campus and meet with faculty, students and alumni.
In his practice at Mallor Grodner in Bloomington, attorney D. Michael Allen is seeing more and more cases that have a digital component. While he learned on the job, he also enrolled in the IU Maurer School of Law cybersecurity master’s program.
The search for the next dean of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law has been narrowed to four individuals who are scheduled to visit the Indianapolis campus in January and early February, according to IUPUI.
A traveling exhibit commemorating the 100th anniversary of women’s constitutional right to vote is being this month hosted by Notre Dame Law School in partnership with the American Bar Association. The ABA joined with the Library of Congress and its Law Library to present the exhibit as part of the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress’ “100 Years After the 19th Amendment: Their Legacy, and Our Future”.
Of Indiana’s four neighboring states, one has adopted the Uniform Bar Exam, one is preparing to adopt, one is expected to adopt and one is not even considering adoption.
Working at a Fort Wayne law firm before enrolling in law school, Julia Kosnik saw the benefit of being able to help clients across state lines from a partner who was licensed in both Indiana and Michigan. “It would be so much easier if I could take the (Uniform Bar Exam) and practice in both states,” Kosnik said. “I’m hoping they move in that direction.”
Applications are now available for the 2020 Indiana Conference for Legal Education Opportunity program may now do so, the Indiana Supreme Court announced Friday.
First-year enrollment in J.D. programs in Indiana law schools rose 3.2% in 2019 over 2018 while the overall J.D. enrollment across the U.S. slipped 0.27%, according data released by the American Bar Association.
A federal appeals court’s reversal of Madison County killer Fredrick Baer’s death sentence was the most-read story on the Indiana Lawyer’s digital edition, www.theindianalawyer.com. Indiana Lawyer readers clicked on stories on our website more than 2.6 million times between Jan. 1 and Dec. 10, 2019, according to Google Analytics. Here are the 50 most-viewed story headlines during that time.
With Indiana already incorporating two components from the Uniform Bar Examination into its own attorney admittance test, a study commission formed to review and recommend changes to state’s bar exam is advocating Indiana pick up the remaining component and transition completely to the UBE. But three commission members cautioned against the move, saying the state would be relinquishing control of its own test.
Finding the Indiana Bar Exam places a “cognitive overload” on examinees, the special commission convened a year ago to study and recommend changes to the test is suggesting the Indiana Supreme Court reduce the number of subjects tested either by cutting the topics on the Indiana Essay Examination or by switching to the Uniform Bar Examination.
A celebration of life for attorney and Valparaiso Law School professor David Welter, who died unexpectedly Monday, has been scheduled for Friday. Welter, a graduate and longtime faculty member of the northern Indiana law school, was 59.