Boyd graduates beat state average on first bar exam

Jennifer Knight

Monday, Oct. 8, 2001 | 9:10 a.m.

Anxious doesn't even begin to describe the way Boyd Law School graduate Rob Beyer felt Friday afternoon before getting his test results from the Nevada bar exam.

"It's pretty much all you think about," Beyer said. "It's such a big change in your life. If you don't pass, you start wondering, 'Will I ever pass?' "

Beyer's anguish dissolved when he found out Friday afternoon that he had passed.

Administrators of the law school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, were equally anxious over the results. The bar exam results were to serve as a litmus test for Boyd Law School's inaugural graduating class of 2001.

If the fresh graduates fell well below the average, accreditation would be difficult. The school's 85 graduates fared well enough, scoring 64.7 percent, slightly above the 605 total bar exam takers, whose average score was 64 percent. Those results make accreditation likely.

The law school's remaining step for accreditation is to move into permanent quarters in UNLV's old library, which is being renovated.

"I am pleased that we are a little bit above the average," said Richard Morgan, the law school's dean. "Certainly what we've done is respectable, but I had higher hopes."

It could have been worse.

Tougher standards for the bar exam were proposed but scrapped last year.

The new standards would have required test takers to pass five essay questions out of nine, instead of the usual three. Test-takers also would have to pass two more questions on the multiple choice section.

"The court decided that after looking at the initial results, they would go back to the old rule of passing," said Rick Trachok, the chairman of the Nevada Board of Examiners.

The Nevada State Bar is about as difficult as California's, long known for its low passage rate, Trachok said.

"California's pass rate is significantly lower than ours because they have so many unaccredited law schools," he said.

Boyd Law School is fast becoming recognized as a quality law school, according to Trachok and several other lawyers in the field.

More than half of the graduating class had secured clerkships before graduating.

Just last year the school announced its first endowed chair, one of the nation's foremost bankrupcty experts. Professor Jay S. Bybee, who teaches constitutional law, was recently appointed to serve in the U.S. attorney's office under the Bush administration.

Financially, the school is faring well. The school received its second largest donation last month for $2 million from the Thomas and Mack families.

Morgan says despite his disappointment, this year's results will be used as a learning tool to help prepare the next wave of students. And as Morgan pointed out, while 55 people passed the bar exam last week, 30 will have to retake the exam next year.

"I feel bad that there are obviously several students who have to retake the exam," Morgan said. "We have a very excellent law school though, and I think we will continue to grow and do better."