Professor Loren Helps Make Bar Review More Affordable

Professor Lydia Loren is using her expertise in Real Property to make bar review more affordable for law students. In December, Professor Loren filmed 12 course modules for Helix Bar Review by AccessLex, a new bar review program being brought to market by AccessLex Institute, a national nonprofit dedicated to the betterment of legal education. The program will be offered at cost with a transparent pricing structure to bar takers beginning in Fall 2021.

“I am excited to be a part of a new option for students to study for and successfully pass that gatekeeping exam: the bar exam,” Professor Loren said. “I was drawn in by Helix’s promise to offer the course to students at cost and to be transparent about that cost.”

“It is only an accident of history that bar preparation programs exist almost exclusively as for-profit ventures rather than as a logical extension of a student’s legal education,” stated Christopher P. Chapman, AccessLex Institute President and Chief Executive Officer. “As a student-centered, law school membership organization, AccessLex is mission-driven to disrupt, reset and rationalize bar review pricing.”

The learning modules are 2-7 minutes long covering topics tested on the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE). Professor Loren was one of 25 law professors from around the country who filmed these modules. Her modules focused on real property topics including Property Ownership (co-tenancy issues and landlord-tenant law) and Rights in Real Property (specifically covering issues related to restrictive covenants).

Law faculty filming the modules each worked with local production companies who met health and safety restrictions in their particular location. “We’re so thankful to all of the faculty members who put in the extra effort to not only come up with outstanding content, but to also work with us and their local production companies to produce these videos in a safe manner during this pandemic,” said Managing Director for Helix Bar Review Program Engagement, Lyssa Thaden.

“I’d never worked with a teleprompter before but Allied Video, a local production company in Salem, were great people to work with and very COVID conscious,” Professor Loren said about the experience.

Professor Loren is no stranger to being part of a market disruptor. In 2009 she co-founded a digital publishing company that offers law school casebooks on a pay-what-you-want model, with a suggested price of only $30. With many new casebooks costing close to $300, a $30 option is a welcome alternative for many professors throughout the country.

“Fresh competition in the bar review market, especially from a newcomer that is harnessing the advantages of new technology, will serve students well,” Professor Loren said. “Students spend three long years (or more) studying to be lawyers, they need a cost-effective study tool to help them surmount the final hurdle of the bar exam.”