The Community Fund for Black Bar Applicants (also known as The Black Bar Applicant Fund) was founded by Octavia L. Carson, Esq. in January 2021.
The bar exam requires examinees to study for more than 40 hours a week and examinees who cannot afford to study without working to pay for living expenses let alone bar prep materials have a significantly lower chance of passing.
In February 2020, only ONE Black bar applicant who was a first-time examinee and graduated from an ABA accredited law school passed the California Bar Exam.
Octavia founded the Fund after working with the National Association for Equity in the Legal Profession (NAELP). Their combined efforts to lobby for more equitable pathways to licensure resulted in the California State Supreme Court making 6.65% more Black bar examinees eligible to get their license by retroactively lowering the passing score to 1390, 40 points higher than the national average and 90 points higher than New York's.
The Community Fund for Black Bar Applicants was born to put Black bar applicants on equal footing through direct cash assistance and the sharing of resources like housing, mentorship, prep materials, and more.
Black attorneys make up just 5% of the profession while black people make up 13% of the US population and 40% of the US imprisoned population. Equal justice cannot happen without diverse representation in the legal field.
Our mission is to provide at least $500 to Black bar exam applicants across the United States each year. This mission stems out of a desire to diversify the legal profession and raise the percentage of Black attorneys in the United States from 5% to 20% by 2024. We hope to be able to offer more resources every year to Black bar applicants across the country to create a more equitable justice system.
Our goal may seem impossible but we believe that by shooting for the stars, even if we miss, we'll land on the moon.
“This data represents the most comprehensive evidence of profound racial and ethnic disparities in bar pass rates,” said Aaron Taylor, executive director of AccessLex Institute’s Center for Legal Education Excellence. “It adds to the immense urgency of questions regarding whether bar exams and their associated cut scores truly serve the aims of protecting the public from unqualified lawyers. If they don’t, they serve only to indefensibly restrict access to the profession.”
Taylor warned that the legal profession can’t afford to ignore the data on bar pass disparities between racial groups.
“The stark nature of these trends should prompt all of us in legal education and in the profession to consider the impact of our actions and inactions on determining who gets to serve as lawyers and who doesn’t,” he said. “These considerations implicate the very function of our legal system.”
- Excerpts from "New ABA Data Shows Stark Contrast in Bar Pass Rates Among Racial Groups"
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla.
Bunc id tincidunt duis faucibus urna adipiscing. Id lorem diam egestas vel facilisis fames.
.svg)
Bunc id tincidunt duis faucibus urna adipiscing. Id lorem diam egestas vel facilisis fames.
Bunc id tincidunt duis faucibus urna adipiscing. Id lorem diam egestas vel facilisis fames.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor.
Purchase Now
Equal justice cannot happen without diverse representation in the legal field!
Follow us on social media
