The return of the BAR/BRI pirates
posted by Kaimipono D. Wenger
Is it the end of the line for the great bar-prep near-monopoly?
A new New York Times story discusses the issue:
In complaints filed in the spring and summer, different groups of students charged that BAR/BRI has paid competitors to shut down and negotiated illegal agreements with potential competitors to divide the market. In particular, they cite a 2003 agreement with Louisiana State University, which until 2004 operated its own bar review course; under the deal, BAR/BRI promised to pay tens of thousands of dollars each year to the school, and the school promised not to run a competing bar review course.
It will be interesting to see how the allegations play out. I don’t know enough about the case to have any opinion on the merits, but I will be keeping an eye on it. Also, I’ll be wondering how it affects my own school, which is in the process of implementing a new bar prep course. (Advance word about the course is good, and I hope it works well). In any case, the story notes some of the reasons bar prep courses are so attractive:
Each state’s exam, typically the second day, usually consists of essays and multiple-choice questions that focus on the law in that particular state. The kinds of questions often require knowledge of topics that some students might not have learned about in school, adding to the allure of a review course aimed precisely at the topics on the exam.
Which raises its own questions. If BAR/BRI is doing an effective job of getting law graduates past the bar, are they really helped if it is shut down? The suit alleges that BAR/BRI overcharges its customers. But I’m willing to be overcharged a little for a system that works.
December 4, 2005 at 2:30 pm
Posted in: Law School
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Responses (10)
KipEsquire - December 4, 2005 at 3:42 pm
Here’s the problem I have with this litigation:
Kaplan is owned by the Washington Post; BAR/BRI is owned by Thomson — Canadian, incidentally. I’m fairly confident that the Washington Post and Thomson could announce a merger agreement tomorrow and not a single antitrust regulator would bat an eyelash, rendering the Kaplan-BAR/BRI “anticompetitive” agreement moot. The parents could merge but the subsidiaries couldn’t fashion a mutual non-compete agreement? That makes no sense.
Daniel J. Solove - December 4, 2005 at 4:08 pm
As I argued extensively earlier this year, I believe that the Bar Exam should be abolished. My guest post at De Novo explains my argument in detail. An excerpt:
Stan Chess’s Lawschool.com has extensive coverage of the BarBri case.
Cathy - December 4, 2005 at 4:25 pm
Side note: but did anyone else feel that the article was written with a tone suggesting that the lawyer was an ambulance-chasing shyster that just happened to have stumbled (er, “stumbled” rather deliberately) upon a good case?
This may very well be the situation (the way he sought out the case made me cringe a little), but the article seemed to include several specific details about the lawyer to lead to that conclusion, like how widely he grinned after he talked about his case. Details that I don’t remember often hearing about other pending legal cases. (Even in the NY Times…)
madisonian.net - December 4, 2005 at 4:31 pm
Harm to Competition?
Today’s New York Times contains this engaging story about an antitrust suit against the leading bar review course provider, BAR/BRI. It’s worth a read.
UPDATE 1: Ethan Leib, at Prawfsblawg, makes an intriguing point about a possible ups…
Mike - December 4, 2005 at 8:42 pm
If BAR/BRI is doing an effective job of getting law graduates past the bar, are they really helped if it is shut down? … I’m willing to be overcharged a little for a system that works.
But the issue, as you well know, is this: Would BarBri be better if it had competition, or would a superior competitior had emerged absent BarBri’s alleged anti-trust violations? I don’t know the answer, but there is at least some value in properly framing the dispute.
john - December 4, 2005 at 11:58 pm
The New York Times asks: Are lawyers being overbilled by test preparation services?
You would think this would prompt the average reader to ask: who cares? And yet this is one of the top emailed articles at the Times. What does that tell you?
Cathy - December 5, 2005 at 7:08 am
It tells you that every current, recent, and future law student’s parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins, best friends, neighbors, garbage collectors, etc. have all decided to send the link to said law student.
And that ends up equaling a lot of emails…
Paul Gowder - December 5, 2005 at 9:29 am
Speaking of bar exams, have you seen this story?! Kathleen Sullivan just failed the CA bar?!
John - December 8, 2005 at 1:34 am
Given the Kathleen Sullivan news, the big question is how much she’ll end up paying for Bar/Bri.
Angie Peraza - October 18, 2006 at 4:22 pm
This explains why I have not been able to find anything regarding a bar review course for the Louisiana Bar. I can assure you, that when Tulane and Loyola had their own bar reviews, the great majority of students opted to take the local bar reviews versus BAR/BRI or any of the other commercial reviews. Louisiana’s Bar Exam is uniques in that there are no “multiple guess” questions to be found in the entire exam. Yes, believe it or not, this exam actually requires the taker to answer questions in essay format.
I can tell you one thing about BAR/BRI’s deals, they are costing students lots more money than the local bars did… I am all for returning to competition. I took the Florida Bar review with BAR/BRI and was not impressed by any means. I actually stopped attending after the second week.
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