Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law offers a unique in-house bar preparation program to complement traditional doctrinal law school coursework, with a goal of fully and adequately preparing students for the California and out-of-state bar examinations. This program is limited to graduates of the Fowler School of Law.
Chapman's bar preparation program consists of two major components: for-credit courses and a supplemental bar preparation program. Students that actively participate in all of the components receive preparation for all three parts of the bar examination, as modified by the change in the California Bar Examination effective in July 2017:
- the five one-hour essay questions
- the one 90-minute performance test
- the 200-question multi-state bar examination
The program is taught and supervised by the law school’s Associate Dean for Bar Preparation and Academic Achievement, Mario Mainero.
For-Credit Bar Preparation Courses
The Fowler School of Law offers two separate and distinct for-credit bar preparation courses: Select Topics in American Law, and Legal Analysis Workshop.
Select Topics in American Law, taught by Dean Mainero, is a survey of all essay subjects covered by the California Bar Exam, and reviews both the substantive law and methods for successfully writing essay examinations in the most commonly tested topics within each of those subjects. There, students will review at least one major essay subject per week, in lecture format, and will complete and review two practice essays per week in each subject. This course is open to all Chapman University Fowler School of Law students.
Legal Analysis Workshop, directed by Assistant Dean for Academic Achievement Sarira Sadeghi, focuses in part on the Performance Exam, and in part on multiple-choice skills relative to the seven Multistate Bar Examination subjects. In the segment focusing on the 90-minute Performance Test, students will work on the analysis and drafting of legal documents commonly prepared during the first few years of practice and commonly tested on the Performance Test section, such as letters, memoranda of points and authorities, and briefs. For further information, please visit the Legal Analysis Workshop page.
Advanced Selected Topics is a course that emphasizes individualized work in small class settings focused on good essay writing and structure. Priority is given to students in the fourth quartile of GPA entering their third year of law school.
Supplemental Bar Preparation Program
The supplemental bar preparation program consists of two parts: (1) ongoing essay and Performance Test critiques; and (2) MBE Mock Bars and reviews of Multistate Bar Exam questions. The supplemental program is not intended to replace the commercial bar preparation courses that most students take during the nine-week period before the bar exam, but rather to supplement those courses and provide assistance in a more individualized manner that those courses often cannot provide.
In Part 1, as students review particular subjects in the commercial review, they can submit their practice essays and performance exams to a team coordinated by Dean Mainero, and that team will critique these practice works and return them to students with comments within 24 to 48 hours.
Part 2 largely consists of administering four Mock Bar MBEs: one at the beginning of the bar prep season—shortly after the beginning of the program; one after about 3 weeks; and one more after another three weeks or so. In the interim between each Mock Bar, students meet for six 2- or 3-hour sessions to review each of the seven subjects and the MBE questions related to those subjects on the previous Mock Bar. These sessions are scheduled so as not to conflict with the commercial review sessions, usually twice or three times a week.
