RALEIGH — Campbell Law School saw its highest overall pass rate — 93.1 percent — on the July 2020 North Carolina Bar Exam since 2012.
This year, 108 of the 116 exam takers from Campbell Law passed, including all repeat takers. The news had Dean J. Rich Leonard “elated.”
“Our 93.1 percent overall pass rate is the highest during my tenure as dean,” said Leonard. “We had the largest group of bar exam takers of any North Carolina school this year. I am so proud of our graduates who stayed focused despite the hardest time imaginable to prepare for the bar exam.”
Regarding first-time testers, 104 Campbell Law graduates passed out of 112 for a first-time pass rate of 92.86 percent. All four of Campbell Law’s repeat testers passed — giving Campbell Law the distinction of being the only law school in the state to have a 100-percent pass rate for its repeaters.
The summer 2020 North Carolina Bar Exam marked the third time the state participated in the Uniform Bar Exam, which as of June 2020, has been adopted in 36 jurisdictions: 34 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In all, 89.65 percent of first-time testers from the seven North Carolina law schools passed the examination. Of the 668 applicants who sat for the exam, 83 percent passed.
Pitt County Public Defender Robert C. (Bert) Kemp III, who teaches as an adjunct at the law school, wrote in an email to the dean, “I commend you, the staff and faculty on a tremendous achievement. Campbell Law graduates prepared, faced incredible adversity, and succeeded. Of these stats, the most impressive is that ALL the repeaters passed! In the military we say, ‘no soldier left behind.’ Campbell continues to prove that ‘no graduate is left behind.’”
