Category: B.P.

When No Higher Court Remains

On April 20, 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded at a cost of eleven lives. What followed was the largest accidental marine oil spill in history.  In the aftermath, BP looked for a solution, ostensibly to cap its exposure and address a swirling PR disaster. BP began to actively negotiate a settlement.

The Results Are In

Keogh Cox’s recent blog entry “Did I pass?” looked at recent changes to the Louisiana attorney’s “bar” examination and discussed the negative impact these changes seem to be having on the bar passage rate. Since that post, the results from the July, 2013 exam were released, and they are not good. In fact, the overall passage rate (53.34%) was among the lowest ever for a July examination.

Did I pass? – A Terrifying Question Gets More Terrifying

The July 2013 Louisiana Bar Examination results are set to be announced on October 11, 2013. Until then, applicants have but a few remaining hours to ponder whether the recent changes to the bar examination will have the same negative effect on passage rates as they did last year.

On October 19, 2011, the Louisiana Supreme Court ordered the implementation of the first changes to the grading standards of the Louisiana Bar exam since the exam was instituted. These changes: began “compensatory scoring;” eliminated essay portions of the test; included “multiple choice” format portions; doubled the score value of the “Code subjects;” ended the “conditional failure” status; and, placed a five-time limit on unsuccessful attempts to pass. Under the new rules, an applicant must score a 650 or higher or will be required to retake the nine (9) section, week-long test encompassing over twenty one (21) hours of testing.