37.2 percent bar pass rate in CA.

Why are we a profession that prides itself on keeping people out? Why do we insist on using arbitrary, archaic standards to tell applicants - after literal years of study - that they’re *still* not good enough?

We should all be angry.

We also need to rid ourselves, permanently, of the false belief that calling this out somehow minimizes the achievements of bar passers. It’s that exact fragile, scarcity mindset that has enabled this system for so long.

I’m still thinking about this pass rate. We know that the bar exam does not simulate, or even test skills relevant to, legal practice. And yet we legitimize it and let it routinely stop countless law careers in their tracks - sometimes temporarily, but other times, permanently.

Blocking people from the profession isn’t a point of pride. It is a collective LOSS. This is OUR loss, and that loss grows with every meager percentage that gets released under the guise of “exclusivity.”

It is also a loss for the communities we purport to serve, who NEED legal services and are not remotely helped by a system that arbitrarily limits their access to it.