According to the American Bar Association, bar passage rates went up in 2025 for two key groups of law graduates from ABA-accredited law schools. First-time exam takers had an aggregate pass rate of 84.10%, compared to the 2024 rate of 83.02%. Including those who took alternative pathways to licensure, the first-time pass rate was 84.19%.
The ABA also measured the number of law graduates who passed the bar exam within two years, referred to as “ultimate bar pass data.” This year, they found that 92.15 to 92.25% of 2023 law graduates had passed by 2025, an improvement of nearly two percentage points over the two-year pass rate of 2022 graduates. Each ABA-accredited school must have an ultimate pass rate of 75% to maintain its accreditation.
As Reuters reports, Stanford Law had the highest first-time bar exam pass rate in 2025: 175 out of 176, or 99.43%. The elite T-14 schools accounted for most of the year’s top scorers among first-time exam takers, but Texas schools made a strong showing; Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law had a 97.75% pass rate. Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School was not far behind at 96.85%.
Trends in the Passing Rate
Bar exam passage rates have largely risen since 2024, following a sharp decline due to the pandemic. Relief from class cancellations and shutdowns would appear to be the obvious reason, but there may be more.
Law schools had a larger candidate pool after COVID, as shutdowns and job losses led many people to reconsider their career paths. Some propose that the law graduates of 2024 and 2025 were better equipped to take the test because law schools could afford to be more selective in their admissions criteria for 2021 and 2022.
Several jurisdictions have recently lowered or adjusted their required passing score cutoffs. The Washington state supreme court has retroactively lowered its passing Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) score by six points, allowing exam takers from 2020 and forward to reapply if their score now qualifies. In 2023, five state bars lowered required scores on the UBE. Afterward, pass rates improved in Utah, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Arizona.
Upcoming Changes for Law Graduates
In July 2026, the NextGen UBE will replace the current UBE in ten jurisdictions, including Connecticut and Maryland. Washington is among them; it adjusted its previous cutoff score to create “parity” with its use of the NextGen UBE’s scoring system. According to the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), the NextGen UBE will roll out through February 2028, and 49 jurisdictions plan to implement it.
The NextGen UBE is intended to test more practical skills than previous examinations have. It will test exam takers not only on the law but on “foundational skills,” including “client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, client relationship and management.” Sample questions are available at the NCBE website.
States have increasingly become more open to alternative pathways that allow lawyers to obtain licenses through supervised experience without taking the full formal bar exam. Oregon, Washington, and Utah have adopted such programs in the past few years. Delaware, America’s corporate legal hub, is considering the possibility. Those who struggle with bar exams, or who simply need a different plan for their working lives, may have more options in the future.
Related Resources
- Bar Passage Rates Increase for First-Time Test Takers (FindLaw's Practice of Law)
- The Bar Exam (FindLaw's Law Student)
- What Is On the Bar Exam? (FindLaw's Law Student)
