Recent Baylor Law Graduates Among Top Scorers on Texas Bar Exam

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Two recent Baylor Law graduates were among the top three scorers on the February 2008 Texas Bar Exam. Thomas Keane of Dallas received the second highest score on the exam, while Ashley DeForest of Houston received the third highest score. Stephen Shackelford Jr., who received his law degree from Harvard, was the top scorer.

"I find it particularly impressive that while Baylor students represented only 13 percent of the participants who took the exam, two of the exam's top three scorers were from Baylor," said Baylor Law Dean Brad Toben. "This is yet again a testament to our longstanding and proven approach to the education of our students for service within a profession. Thanks go to each person on our team, both within and outside our school, who by their hard work, support and encouragement make the ever-continuing remarkable successes in our program possible."

The top three scorers were announced at the Induction Ceremony for New Members of the State Bar of Texas that was held Monday, May 12, at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin. Wallace Jefferson, chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, administered the Lawyer's Oath.

For the sixth straight exam and the 10th time overall since 2002, Baylor law students claimed the top pass rate on the Texas State Bar Exam with 95.83 percent success rate, the highest pass rate for students from the nine Texas law schools. Of the 48 Baylor students who took the three-day exam in February, 46 passed on their first try.

The overall state pass rate was 85.01 percent, with 312 successful candidates out of 367 who took the exam for the first time. Texas Tech University was second behind Baylor with a 92.86 percent pass rate, while SMU was third with a 92.31 percent pass rate.

Baylor Law School has an unsurpassed record of success on the State Bar Exam, which is given twice a year and qualifies a candidate to practice law in Texas. Baylor Law School had a 97.85 percent success rate on the July 2007 exam, a 100 percent pass rate on the February 2007 exam and also the highest pass rate for the exams given in 2006.