Chapman University Fowler School of Law Professor Going the Extra Mile to Prepare Students for the Bar Exam
February 20, 2014
Mario W. Mainero, professor at Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law, was recently highlighted in “Law schools expanding classes to teach students to pass the bar exam,” written by Don J. DeBenedictis in the Daily Journal on Friday, February 14, 2014 (subscription required to view link).
“We’re trying to do more than the commercial bar review courses,” Mainero said about the extensive Bar Exam Preparation Program at Fowler School of Law. Fowler offers a unique in-house bar exam preparation program to complement traditional doctrinal law school coursework, with a goal of fully preparing students for the California and out-of-state bar examinations. The Bar Exam Preparation Program is taught and supervised by Professor Mario W. Mainero, the law school’s Director of Bar Services.
According to the article, law schools across the country have created bar exam preparation classes and programs. The author explained that “most deans and others in the field predict the results-oriented courses and programs will only grow in the future” in order to compensate for lower applications and lower acceptance standards.
While many law schools offer supplemental bar exam preparation courses, not all offer class credit. Fowler School of Law and a few others do offer this program for class credit. DeBenedictis pointed out that “Chapman’s program is certainly one of the most intense. It includes a semester course in which students are expected to write more than 30 sample essay answers, which Mainero said he returns to students with extensive comments within 24 hours.” Mainero said, “the result is that Chapman [Fowler School of Law] ‘outperforms its predictors’…by regularly scoring a pass rate above the average for California ABA schools.”
