Once again graduates of the Wayne State University Law School placed first on the Michigan Bar Examination with a passing rate of 96% for first-time takers and 94% for all takers of the July 1997 bar examination.

The results mark the third time in a row that Wayne State law graduates taking the bar examination on their first try have finished first or tied for first.

Dean James K. Robinson announced the figures just released by the State Board of Law Examiners that update preliminary figures released in November 1997 and take into account successful appeals by students.

Trailing Wayne State were:

* University of Michigan Law School with a pass rate of 95% for first-time takers and 93% overall;

* University of Detroit Mercy Law School with a rate of 90% for first-time takers and 83% overall;

* Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University with 89% for first-time takers and 86% overall; and

* Thomas M. Cooley School of Law with 86% for first-time takers and 80%overall.

Robinson says the continuing success of the students on the bar examination is a tribute to the strength of the legal education they obtained at Wayne State, a combined product of the teaching and research ability of the faculty and the talent and dedication of outstanding students.

"We are particularly proud that Wayne State students enter the legal profession with substantially less debt than students from the other schools in the state, where tuition is more than double that of Wayne State," Robinson said.

"These results continue to validate Governor John Engler's observation at the1997 Law School Commencement that Wayne State is defining value in terms of a legal education in our state."

For more information call the Law School at (313) 577-3933.