Your participation is voluntary. You do not need to participate. Your decision and information will be kept confidential.

The section below contains important information about the Nevada Bar Study, which is decribed in greater detail in the August 2021 and November 2019 issues of the Nevada Lawyer, available on the State Bar of Nevada website HERE and HERE. Please consider the information carefully and feel free to ask questions before deciding whether or not to participate. (See below for our contact information.)

Purpose of the study: This study seeks to determine if the bar exam is a predictor of lawyering effectiveness, serving as intended as a test of minimum competence. To capture “lawyering effectiveness,” we are using the seminal framework developed by Professors Shultz and Zedeck (2011), which identifies 26 key competencies, including (but not limited to) the ability to collect and process information, plan and organize work, build client relationships, work with others, and resolve conflicts.

This is the first phase of the study, where we ask you to:

  1. Provide demographic information, as well as that regarding your law school enrollment, bar exam history, and current employment;
  2. Provide contact information for up to five individuals who are familiar with you in a professional capacity (up to two supervisors, up to two peers, and one judge, if possible); and
  3. Complete a self-assessment on five key skills.

The feedback we receive from the individuals you identify are the keystone of the study. These individuals will be asked to provide a rating of your abilities on 26 key skills. These ratings (along with your own self-assessment) will constitute lawyering effectiveness. The State Bar of Nevada will provide your bar exam score(s). Combined with the responses from all participants, we will then examine whether or not bar exam scores predict new lawyers’ levels of performance on these key skills. We recognize that seeking this information may seem invasive, but this work has the potential to change the bar exam landscape in both Nevada and nationally, and all analyses will be done without any of your personally identifiable information. In addition, the State Bar of Nevada and the Board of Bar Examiners is providing participants with 3 CLE credits AND a $10 Amazon gift card.

Study Procedures: If you agree to join this study, you will be asked to do the following:

  1. Consent to participate in the study, allowing AccessLex and the State Bar of Nevada to use your responses for analysis;
  2. Provide personal information, including race/ethnicity, gender, law school enrollment, and employment after law school;
  3. Complete a five-item self-assessment; and
  4. Provide contact information for up to five individuals, including up to two peers, two supervisors, and one judge with whom you have practiced or appeared before. These individuals will be asked to provide a rating of your skills in eight areas of lawyering effectiveness: intellectual and cognitive factors, research and information gathering, communications, planning and organization, conflict resolution, client and business relations, working with others, and character. In addition, they will also be asked to recommend another individual who will be asked to rate your lawyering effectiveness in the same manner.

Our rating instrument will ask those individuals to keep their ratings confidential (agreeing to do so is part of the consent agreement that they must complete), but we cannot guarantee that they will do so; they may discuss their ratings of you with other lawyers and community members.

Please note that any and all analyses will be conducted without any personally identifiable information.

You may revoke your participation at any time, including after you have submitted your responses.

Data Security and confidentiality: AccessLex personnel will work with the State Bar of Nevada to facilitate the transfer of data securely via Secure FTP (SFTP) or encrypted Box Enterprise transfer. Data will then be housed in a secure, password-protected file on the AccessLex network, accessible only by the Senior Research Methodologist and the Managing Director of Research, and encrypted at rest. In the event that AccessLex releases a public report on the results of the study, it will not include any information that will make it possible to identify you. Research records will be kept in protected files on a secure network, and only AccessLex researchers will have access to this de-identified data.

Risks and benefits: Data transmitted to the research team by survey participants will include identifiable information about survey participants. In order to minimize the risks of accidental loss of confidentiality, we will adhere to the data security procedures outlined above.

It is possible that you may find some of the questions about your background, academics, and employment to be sensitive and/or invasive. These questions are designed to gather the information needed to test the validity of the bar exam; however, if you feel strongly, you might be able to skip these questions.

The primary benefits of this study will accrue to the legal profession and its clients. The study will illuminate whether, and to what extent, the current bar exam predicts lawyering effectiveness and, if not, may help shape reforms in the licensing process. Your participation in the study may also produce a direct benefit to you, if some of your raters increase their opinion of your lawyering effectiveness after they have applied the study’s rating scale to your work.

Incentives: If you participate in the study, you will receive 3 CLE credits, a $10 Amazon gift card, and a copy of the final report. A certificate of participation will be provided for your CLE credits to the CLE Board.

Participant Rights: You may refuse to participate in this study without penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled. Your decision will not affect your standing with the State Bar of Nevada.

If you choose to participate in the study, you may discontinue participation at any time without penalty or loss of benefits. By signing this form, you do not give up any personal legal rights you may have as a participant in this study.

Questions and Contacts: If you have questions regarding this study, please email AccessLex at research@accesslex.org with “Nevada Bar Study” in the subject line.

About AccessLex: For more information about AccessLex, please visit www.accesslex.org. For more information about our research activities, please visit https://www.accesslex.org/research-and-data.