DETROIT – Wayne State University Law School got good news earlier this year after the latest state bar exams — and, after successful appeals by five graduates, the news is even better.

Ninety percent of Wayne Law graduates who took the state bar exam for the first time in February passed — the highest passage rate of any law school in the state. The state average after appeals was 68 percent.

Wayne Law’s passage rate for graduates taking the February bar exam for a second time is now 61 percent, up from 50 percent after the successful appeals.

That brings Wayne Law’s overall passage rate up from 63 percent to 70 percent — nearly 10 points higher than that of Michigan State University’s average (61 percent after appeals) and second only to the University of Michigan’s (82 percent). The state average is 62 percent after appeals.

Wayne Law Dean Jocelyn Benson said she is encouraged by the good news and remains strongly committed to further improving the rate for all of the school’s graduates. In her February State of the Law School address, she outlined her plans for helping students reach their full potential, and improving Wayne Law’s bar passage rate was among those goals.

In keeping with that plan, Judge and Adjunct Professor Elizabeth Gleicher is developing a new course on Michigan law for the winter 2014 term, and Sarah Garrison has joined the Dean of Students Office to assist graduates taking the exam. The Law School’s development team also is exploring opportunities for donors to financially support bar exam prep courses for students with financial need, the dean said.