Former Stanford law dean passes California bar

According to The Mercury News

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - Former Stanford Law School Dean Kathleen Sullivan passed the California State Bar examination on her second try - months after the state's highest court removed her from a case because she had not passed the exam.

Sullivan failed the state's three-day test to become licensed to practice law in California last year, but she passed the February test, according to results released Sunday.

A month before she retook the exam, the California Supreme Court removed her from the legal team in a $500 million licensing dispute because she had not yet passed the exam.

Sullivan, the author of a leading constitutional law textbook, is licensed to practice in New York and Massachusetts and says she has argued four cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Having practiced law for nearly 25 years as a member of the New York and Massachusetts Bars, I am extremely excited about new opportunities to practice in California," Sullivan, 50, said in a statement.

Sullivan departed from the top law post at Stanford in 2004 after a five-year stint to head the appellate section of the firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges in Redwood City.