Chapman University School of Law offers a unique in-house bar preparation program to complement traditional doctrinal law school coursework, with a goal of fully and adequately preparing students for the California and out-of-state bar examinations. Chapman Law’s bar exam pass rate for first-time takers has risen dramatically since instituting this program in 2006, including a pass rate for the July 2012 exam that ranked Chapman 7th among California ABA schools. (See complete California Bar Exam Statistics.) 

Chapman's bar preparation program consists of two major components: for-credit courses and a supplemental bar preparation program. Students that actively participate in all of the components receive preparation for all three parts of the Bar examination:

• the six essay questions 
• the two performance examinations 
• the multi-state bar examinations

The program is taught and supervised by Professor Mario Mainero, the law school’s Director of Bar Services.

For-credit Bar Preparation Courses

Chapman University School of Law offers two separate and distinct for-credit bar preparation courses: Select topics in American law, and legal analysis workshop.

Select topics in American law, taught by Professor Mainero, is a survey of all essay subjects covered by the California Bar Exam, and reviews both the substantive law and methods for successfully writing essay examinations in the most commonly tested topics within each of those subjects. There, students will review at least one major essay subject per week, in lecture format, and will complete and review two practice essays per week in each subject. This course is open to all Chapman University School of Law students.

Legal Analysis Workshop, historically taught by Professor Faulkner, focuses on the Performance Exam. There, students will work on the analysis and drafting of legal documents commonly prepared during the first few years of practice and commonly tested on the Performance Exam section, such as letters, memoranda of points and authorities, and briefs. For further information, go to the Legal Analysis Workshop page, or fill out an application. 

Supplemental Bar Preparation Program

The supplemental bar preparation program consists of two parts: (1) ongoing essay critiques; and (2) MBE Mock Bars and reviews. The supplemental program is not intended to replace the commercial bar preparation courses that most students take during the nine-week period before the bar exam, but rather to supplement those courses and provide assistance in a more individualized manner that those courses often cannot provide.


In Part 1, as students review particular subjects in the commercial review, they can submit their practice essays and performance exams to a team coordinated by Professor Mainero, and that team will critique these practice works and return them to students with comments within 24 to 48 hours.

Part 2 largely consists of administering three Mock Bar MBE’s: one at the beginning of the bar prep season—shortly after the beginning of the program; one after about 3 weeks; and one more after another three weeks or so. In the interim between each Mock Bar, students meet for six 2-hour sessions to review each of the six subjects and the MBE questions related to those subjects on the previous Mock Bar. These sessions are scheduled so as not to conflict with the commercial review sessions, usually twice a week.

Contact Us

For further information, please contact Professor Mario Mainero, Director of Bar Services, at mmainero@chapman.edu, or (714) 628-2518.