Spartans Pass the Bar

Jan. 13, 2025

In 2024, MSU Law students gained national recognition for their top-ranked Moot Court program, their continually rising flagship Law Review, their clerkships for federal judges, and their pro bono work on clinic cases.

Soon, they will add to that list another important measure of success: an increased bar passage rate.

With the 2025 launch of Spartans Pass the Bar, MSU Law leadership is committing more time and resources to ensure every 3L is well prepared to take the bar upon graduation.

“Helping our students pass the bar their first time out is arguably our biggest responsibility,” said Dean Michael Sant’Ambrogio. “First-time passage is what every student strives for. I’m confident with our focused attention, they’ll achieve their goal.”

All 3L students are eligible – and encouraged – to take the new three-credit course, Bar Exam Success Fundamentals. Designed in conjunction with BARBRI, the course will jumpstart exam preparation thought targeted practice, expert guidance, flexible study tools, and stress management strategies.

The class is taught in-person via streamed lectures by BARBRI instructors.

Students will receive critical feedback on three essays and a Multistate Performance Test.

On behalf of MSU Law, BARBRI is offering additional resources this spring, including a diagnostic skills assessment, and MBE and essay-writing workshops.

These courses and workshops are in addition to MSU Law’s ongoing assistance offered by Assistant Dean Goldie Pritchard of the Academic Success Program. While the BARBRI course focuses on bar prep, Dean Pritchard supports all students needing extra help from the time they enter the doors.

The Spartans Pass the Bar campaign engages all faculty and staff to celebrate MSU Law’s newest bar prep initiative early this semester by wearing specially designed T-shirts.

For his part, Professor Philip Pucillo expects the new course to help students pass the exam on their first effort. “There’s a great deal of rigor in law school,” he said. “You can’t get through the program and pass the bar exam without absolute focus, hard work, and dedicated preparation.

“For students taking the course, it’s the kind of thing that can only help,” he said. “I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘I had too much bar prep.’”