The University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center once again received the highest passage rate on the latest Louisiana State Bar Exam.In all, 165 University law students took the exam July 2008 with a passage rate of 78.2 percent, and Tulane followed closely with a 76.3 percent passage rate. The overall state passage rate was 64.3 percent, according to the Committee on Bar Admissions for the Supreme Court of Louisiana. Lani Durio is one of LSU’s 129 law graduates who passed the July 2008 bar exam.Durio said one main reason she chose LSU’s law school was the good reputation its students had for passing the bar, a test that must be passed to practice law in the state. “I think professors were concerned with getting us prepared for the bar,” Durio said. “A lot of information covered was what would be included in the bar.” Jack Weiss, Law Center chancellor, said one of the contributing factors for the LSU’s success is the rigorous program and the faculty’s high expectations for students.  While the University’s bar passage rate is high, the overall passage rate for the state is low compared to the other states in the South. Louisiana has had a historically low passage rate for the bar exam, Weiss said.Louisiana had a 62 percent passage rate last year, whereas Kentucky, Mississippi and South Carolina had  81 percent passage rates. Weiss said he didn’t know exactly why Louisiana has a lower rate but said, “Our bar exam is the longest in the country — it’s 21 hours.” Durio said she studied an average of eight to 10 hours a day starting in June until the three-day exam started July 21. Weiss said the relevant measure for comparing law schools’ bar passage rates is to compare the law school to the passing rate in the state. The University of Georgia’s law graduates had a 90 percent pass rate July 2007, and the state’s overall passage rate was 79.8 percent.University of South Carolina’s law graduates had a 91.5 percent pass rate July 2007 compared with the state’s overall 81 percent rate, according to South Carolina Supreme Court bar results. Weiss said he would like the University’s scores higher, but he said looking at it from the state’s perspective, it is a satisfying percentage.—-Contact Joy Lukachick  at [email protected]