FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 2009
Contact: Stephanie Perry
Communications Specialist/Website Editor
206-733-5932; stephaniep@wsba.org
626 Candidates Pass Summer 2009 Washington State Bar Exam
(SEATTLE) — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) announced today that 626 candidates passed the Bar Exam administered in July 2009, at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. Of the 912 candidates who took the exam, 68.6 percent passed.
Administered in two parts over a three-day period, the Bar Exam includes a substantive law exam and an exam on the Rules of Professional Conduct (ethics). Candidates must successfully pass both parts in order to qualify for admission to the WSBA. If a candidate passes one part of the exam and fails the other, that candidate may sit for the next exam without having to retake the portion previously passed.
In 1999, the Washington State Supreme Court approved Admission to Practice Rule (APR) 18, which provides a procedure for the reciprocal admission of lawyers without requiring that those lawyers pass the Washington State Bar Exam. Under APR 18, lawyers from other states, U.S. territories, or the District of Columbia are admitted to the WSBA on the same terms and conditions that a Washington lawyer could be admitted in the other state. This rule also enables Washington lawyers to seek admission in those states that provide for some form of reciprocal admission.
The passage percentages are given below. View the pass list here.
About the Washington State Bar Association
The WSBA is part of the judicial branch, exercising a governmental function authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court to license the state’s 33,500 lawyers. The WSBA both regulates lawyers under the authority of the Court and serves its members as a professional association – all without public funding. As a regulatory agency, the WSBA administers the bar admission process, including the bar exam; provides record-keeping and licensing functions; and administers the lawyer-discipline system. As a professional association, the WSBA provides continuing legal education for attorneys, in addition to numerous other educational and member-service activities.
The governance of the WSBA is vested in its Board of Governors. There are three governors from the seventh congressional district; one from each of the other eight districts; and three at-large, one of whom represents the Young Lawyers Division. The president is Salvador A. Mungia, of Tacoma. The president-elect is Steven G. Toole, of Bellevue, and the immediate past-president is Mark A. Johnson, of Seattle. The Board meets regularly (every six weeks) at various locations around the state, and its meetings are open to the public. Much of the work of the Bar is carried out through its numerous standing committees, 27 sections, and a Young Lawyers Division with its many committees.
Passage Percentages From Summer 2009 Bar Exam
912 Applicants Took Exam
847 Applicants Took Substantive Portion
881 Applicants Took Rules of Professional Conduct Portion
626 Applicants Are Eligible to Be Admitted
Overall Pass
All Applicants 68.6%
Attorney Applicants 63.2%
General Applicants 68.9%
First-Time General Applicants 71.8%
Rule 18 85.7%
Overall Pass Rate Per Exam Portion
Substantive
All Applicants 74.7%
Attorney Applicants 64.0%
General Applicants 75.9%
Rules of Professional Conduct
All Applicants 80.1%
Attorney Applicants 81.8%
General Applicants 79.9%
Rule 18 85.7%
First-Time Takers
Substantive
All Applicants 79.1%
Attorney Applicants 71.0%
General Applicants 79.9%
Rules of Professional Conduct
All Applicants 81.7%
Attorney Applicants 84.1%
General Applicants 81.4%
Rule 18 84.2%
Repeaters
Substantive
All Applicants 36.8%
Attorney Applicants 35.3%
General Applicants 36.2%
Rules of Professional Conduct
All Applicants 68.3%
Attorney Applicants 73.7%
General Applicant 67.1%
Rule 18 100%
