Ratings Game

Ratings Game

After magazine and bar scores, should Stetson and other established Florida law schools be looking over their shoulders?

By Francis X. Gilpin

Associate Editor

The reputation of Stetson University's College of Law took a bit of a hit in two recently released surveys that are watched by legal educators and prospective law students alike.

Stetson dropped to second place in a key specialty category for law schools in the 2005 edition of U.S. News & World Report's annual "America's Best Graduate Schools." The college's top ranking for trial advocacy in the 2004 survey by the magazine had been a source of pride for the Gulfport school.

Although typically finishing in the lower tiers of American law schools overall in U.S. News surveys, Stetson had been able to brag for the past year that it was No. 1 in the nation for turning out graduates with a solid foundation for becoming top-notch trial attorneys. The school touted the achievement on its Web site.

Dean Darby Dickerson doesn't think second place is too shabby. "We're very proud to be consistently thought of as having one of the best trial advocacy programs in the country, from among the 177 ABA-accredited law schools," Dickerson told GCBR. "We're thrilled to be included."

The first-year dean attributes Stetson's reputation among the law professors contacted by U.S. News to the trial teams from the college that compete in national interscholastic competitions. Stetson teams frequently make the finals and sometimes win the whole competition, according to Dickerson.

"It's great exposure nationally for us," says Dickerson. But it also means Stetson graduates are as well prepared for the courtroom as any in the United States. "Our students, when they go out to practice, they can hit the ground running," she says.

In order to practice law in Florida, however, Stetson graduates and those of other schools have to pass the state bar exam.

Over the past five years, Stetson grads have the third-best record among Florida law schools for passing the state bar exam on the first try.

That's what GCBR found by analyzing data from the Florida Board of Bar Examiners. The data cover the semi-annual exams administered from February 1999 to February 2004.

Almost 82% of prospective lawyers with a Stetson degree passed the bar on their first try, according to the GCBR analysis. Stetson trailed the University of Florida's Levin College of Law and Florida State University. Nearly 88% of Levin law grads passed the first time. About 86% of FSU law grads passed on the first try.

Bar passage rates are one of the criteria that U.S. News uses to evaluate law schools. But law schools vary in how much energy they devote to getting their students ready for the bar exam as class schedules wind down. The American Bar Association prohibits law schools from giving credit for courses that prepare participants for the bar exam.

Dickerson says Stetson does provide students with an opportunity to attend non-credit seminars on the exam as a supplement to the regular curriculum. Lecturers inform students about topics such as how the exam is graded.

"We don't want to just teach for the bar exam," says Dickerson. "At Stetson, we feel it is our obligation to put them on a track to be outstanding practice lawyers. We're not a bar prep school."

What is striking about the latest results from the February exam is the ascendancy of Florida Coastal School of Law. The Jacksonville school finished second in the state with 79% of its graduates passing the bar. Only Levin grads did better, with nearly 89% passing the exam.

Nine-year-old Florida Coastal was just fully accredited by the ABA in the summer of 2002 and is the country's only for-profit law school to have achieved such a distinction.

Sterling Capital Partners, a Chicago area private equity firm, invested a reported $15 million in Florida Coastal earlier this year for what is believed to be a controlling interest in the law school.

Steven M. Taslitz, a senior managing director at Sterling Capital, is chairman and president of Florida Coastal School of Law Inc. Sterling has sunk money into other educational ventures. Those investments include Professional Career Development Institute, an Atlanta company that offers distance-learning programs for high school dropouts, and Sylvan Learning Systems, a chain of tutorial centers based in Baltimore.

Florida Coastal's latest bar passage performance in the Sunshine State is a considerable improvement over its 70% rate of a year ago. It had been in the 50% range for the two February exams before that.

More remarkable, though, may have been the plunge by FSU law graduates from last year. About 80% of FSU grads passed the bar in February 2003. But only 67% passed this February's exam.

By comparison, Stetson's dip from 81% to 76% was much milder.

Dickerson pointed out a significant change in the exam. The board of bar examiners has made passing the exam more difficult. The long-time cutoff score of 131 was increased for last July's exam to 133. The bar exam passage will be raised again this July, up to 136.

MAKING THE GRADE

Which accredited Florida law schools had the most graduates passing the state bar on the first try, 1999-2004?

Law schoolCityExam takersPassing gradesPct of passersUSN&WR national ranking

University of FloridaGainesville1,9761,73087.6%Tied for 43rd

Florida State UniversityTallahassee1,06091386.1%Tied for 67th

Stetson UniversityGulfport1,15694381.6%Third tier; between 105th and 133rd

University of MiamiCoral Gables1,6631,31879.3%Tied for 77th

Nova Southeastern UniversityFort Lauderdale1,39695168.1%Fourth tier; below 133rd

Florida Coastal School of LawJacksonville57234360.0%Fourth tier; below 133rd

St. Thomas UniversityMiami66639359.0%Unranked

Barry UniversityOrlando2128540.1%Unranked

Non-Florida law schools6,4355,08779.1%

All first-time takers15,13611,76377.7%

Source: Florida Board of Bar Examiners, U.S. News & World Report