The pass rate of UMKC School of Law students who took the Missouri bar exam for the first time in July 2024 was 90.6%, more than 5% higher than the pass rate of all Missouri first-time test takers. UMKC Law students had the highest pass rate of all public universities in Missouri and Kansas.
“We are incredibly proud of our success on this bar exam,” UMKC School of Law Dean Lumen Mulligan said. “It is a team effort: hardworking students, great faculty, the nation’s top bar-passage professor in Wanda Temm and alumni support. Each teammate is essential. Indeed, we appreciate all the alumni gifts supporting the bar prep program, especially our gold-level sponsorship from Wagstaff & Cartmell, LLP.”
Students who took the July bar exam are some of the first to benefit from the new bar preparation program, an initiative by the UMKC School of Law to provide every juris doctorate student with a commercial bar prep program and in-person supplemental course at no extra cost. With a July 2024 pass rate that is 9% higher than the July 2023 pass rate of UMKC Law students, the program’s impact is outstanding.
Wanda Temm, J.D., a nationally recognized expert on bar passage, has taught the supplemental course for more than 20 years. Temm has taught nearly 2,000 students how to prepare for the bar exam. When she began the course, UMKC School of Law was one of the first in the country to offer a supplemental bar preparation course.
“UMKC has a proud tradition of supporting our students throughout their legal education and bar preparation,” Temm said. “Credit goes to our students who put in the effort it takes and to the law school community, from the administration to faculty, staff and alumni who volunteer to help year after year. We are so proud of this team effort and results.”
UMKC School of Law is one of few in the country to provide both a commercial bar preparation program and a supplemental in-person course at no cost to students beyond tuition and fees.
“This has been a game-changer for our students,” Mulligan said. “Law school is probably the most challenging intellectual exercise they’ll engage in, and the bar exam is the top of that mountain. This initiative ensures that every student has access to these important resources and the best chance to be successful.”
Reputable commercial bar preparation programs cost an average of $4,000, a high expense to ask students to pay before many of them have full-time jobs and one that cannot be paid for with a student loan. This leaves many students to make the difficult choice to take out a commercial loan to pay for a program or try to pass the bar exam without using a program to prepare.
Alexis Denny (J.D. ‘23) was in the first class of students to prepare for the bar exam with this extra support.
“The reality of bar prep is that some people have to make an economic-driven decision,” Denny said. “So they choose the cheapest or free option, don’t enroll in the in-person class and try to go it alone. With this initiative, no student has to choose between paying for bills or a bar prep program.”
Some large law firms pay for bar prep expenses, but students with ambitions in areas of law that don’t pay for bar prep, and likely don’t start at high salaries, are now able to pursue those ambitions with less concern regarding expense. UMKC School of Law prides itself on its ties and service to the Kansas City community, and this is one more way it provides value to that community, as well as its students.
“This initiative is deeply in line with our mission,” Mulligan said. “First-generation and other students with fewer economic means now have access to that resource to succeed. We’re helping to create lawyers who seek a career outside of the private sector such as in public defense, district attorney offices and public service work.”
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