Thomas Reichert, an assistant professor of law with SIU Simmons Law School, leads a contracts class for first-year law students. (Photos by Erasmus Tornye)
October 14, 2025
SIU Simmons Law School increases first-time bar exam passage rates
CARBONDALE, Ill. — With an evidence-based, individualized and comprehensive approach, Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School is enjoying significant increases in first-time passage rates for recent graduates sitting for bar exams.
In Illinois, 77% of 2025 graduates who took the Illinois State Bar Exam in July for the first time passed on the first attempt, while in Missouri, 86% of SIU graduates who took the test passed the first time. Both results are nearly 15 percentage points higher than first-time test results for 2024 graduates.
Hannah Brenner Johnson, who became law school dean in July, said she is “elated by the results.”
“The success of our 2025 graduates reflects a refined approach to bar support implemented by our faculty in recent years to boost our students’ success in law school, on the bar exam and ultimately in practice … together with the hard work put in by our students,” she said. “I could not be more proud of these accomplishments.”
The results “are the new norm, and I expect the positive trend will continue. We will continue to review and revise our approach to ensure we are best serving our students,” Brenner Johnson said.
Preparation for the bar exam begins one day one.
Included in each student’s tuition is a fully funded BARBRI program, which provides comprehensive resources, including organization materials, practice questions to use throughout law school, materials for advanced bar preparation courses, a simulated mini-bar exam at the midpoint of law school, along with a full bar-prep course for use after graduation.
In addition, the law school curriculum integrates bar support and practical skills training into just about every course, Brenner Johnson said.
“Faculty offer individualized academic feedback and guide students through practice exams and simulations designed to build mastery and confidence,” she said. “Our approach is both comprehensive and personal, meeting each student where they are and providing targeted support through peer mentors, additional meetings with faculty, and specialized academic and bar-prep courses in each academic year.”
Brenner Johnson noted that the coordinated efforts, led by Kelly Collinsworth, the law school’s director of bar support, “ensure that by the time our graduates sit for the bar exam, they do so with confidence and with a Saluki community behind them.”