Did Kamala Harris fail the Bar Exam?

October Online Bar Exam Pass Rates are rolling in and trending up, mostly. While we are still waiting the NY Bar Exam results, the February 2020 session had a 40 percent pass rate. Nobody wants to fail the bar exam, but it happens – even to Kamala Harris.

(NOAH BERGER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

Tens of thousands of aspiring attorneys get the bad news each year that they’ve failed the bar exam. It might feel like it at that time, but it’s not necessarily “game over” for any chance at a successful legal career.

Take Kamala Harris for instance. She graduated from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1989 and did fail the bar exam on her first attempt, per The New York Times. She later passed.

“It’s not a measure of your capacity”

Pass Rate for the February California Bar Exam

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Harris once told a recent law school grad who didn’t pass the test, “It’s not a measure of your capacity,” The New York Times also reported in 2016.

Failing the bar exam is disappointing, aggravating, and a million other emotions all at once. You need to allow yourself to feel any and all of these emotions and work through them before you move on.

During this time, it is a good idea to read about those who failed the bar exam. Why? Because you’ll see that failing the bar exam is not the end.

If U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, former Dean of Stanford Law School Kathleen Sullivan, and two California Governors Jerry Brown and Pete Wilson could not pass on their first try but were widely successful as California’s attorney general, a top law school dean, and governors of our great state, what does that say of the bar?

Many higher profile examples of bar failures

Hillary Clinton, also a former Senator, first lady, and presidential candidate, failed to pass the District of Columbia bar exam in 1973, the same year she passed the bar in Arkansas.
First Lady Michelle Obama failed the Illinois exam.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt failed the New York bar, passed it in 1907, and then dropped out of Columbia Law School (though he was posthumously given a J.D.).
There’s an urban legend out there that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Cardozo failed five times and passed on the sixth
John F. Kennedy Jr. failed twice in New York before passing.

So what happened to Kamala Harris?

You know the story. Harris has gone on to be elected and re-elected as San Francisco District Attorney and Attorney General of California to now serving as the first Indian-American senator, the first black senator from California, and just the second black woman to serve in the Senate. She will now make history as the first female, black and Asian American vice-president.

If you’re retaking the bar exam, don’t let the odds get you down. You can totally do this.

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