<p>Wonderful. Duke Law always struck me as a unit of the University that should be ranked higher than its current rank of 10 and historic rank of 11. </p>
<p>I am not an attorney, however, many in my family – including my wife – are. They have long maintained that state bar, first-try pass rates are meaningless indicators of the ENDURING quality of legal (JD) education (I really don’t know if this is true, but they unanimously feel this way). More specifically, they believe the very best law schools tend to focus on the precepts, the concepts, the principles and – most important – the ways to think and to analyze that create an acute “legal mind,” whereas some less-distinguished law schools, they allege, concentrate on “teaching to pass the bar.” </p>
<p>I’m glad our fellow Duke alumni did so well, but I am even less ready to laud this result than I am with many other “single point” indicators. </p>
<p>Duke’s average came from the 30 Duke test-takers who took the Bar Exam in California. I think an analysis of statistical significance should be performed before perceiving the figure as meaningful.</p>