NYC Law Department invests in bar retakers, yields results for the city
When I began serving as corporation counsel in 2022, the Law Department, like other public law offices across the nation, faced a significant retention and hiring problem. One of my top priorities was to strengthen our programs to ensure we attracted and retained the staff we needed to remain the finest public law office in the country. Among our dedicated staff were individuals who we hired prior to taking the bar but did not pass.
Our bar retakers at the Law Department made a commitment to public service and to the City of New York, and we have spent a significant amount of resources recruiting and training them. It is important that we continue investing in these individuals so that they can assist in carrying out our mission as attorneys for the city. To accomplish this objective, I collaborated with our dedicated Law Department team and New York Law School to develop an innovative program to enhance our support for these bar retakers.
I am pleased to acknowledge that nearly 52% of our bar retakers who sat for the February 2024 exam have passed. This figure is significantly higher than the 33% overall pass rate for retakers in New York State.