Carolina Law is Only NC Law School That Didn’t Drop in the 2022 Bar Passage Rate for First-Time Test Takers

September 13, 2022

According to results released by the North Carolina Board of Law Examiners, UNC School of Law had 93% of its 127 first-time test takers pass the July 2022 North Carolina bar exam. The overall state passage rate for first-time test takers was 75.36%, which was down from last July’s 83.98% passage rate. Despite the seven-point dip, Carolina Law was the only North Carolina law school that did not drop in its bar passage rate for first-time test takers.

Combining the first-time test takers and repeaters together, Carolina Law’s total passage rate for the July 2022 bar exam was 90.30% (134 total takers; 121 passing). This was 22 points higher than the state’s overall passage rate of 67.90%.

Carolina Law’s Academic Excellence Program (AEP)  provides all students with resources to aid their legal study, including for-credit bar preparation courses and individual and group bar preparation for 3L students.

“I am very proud of the Class of 2022. Their law school experience may have been different because of COVID, but they persevered and supported each other. And they performed extremely well on the July 2022 North Carolina bar exam,” says O.J. Salinas, AEP director and clinical professor of law. “The Class of 2022 navigated remote and in-person classes throughout their three years. Their ability to be flexible in a changing learning environment allowed us to help them prepare for the in-person bar exam and succeed.”

“Helping students maximize their potential to learn and succeed in law school and in their professional career is our ultimate goal,” says Martin H. Brinkley ’92, dean and William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor. “Seeing the Class of 2022 achieve these bar passage numbers is a direct result of the work that Professor O.J. Salinas and our graduates put into preparing for an exam they have been working towards for three years.”