For the second consecutive year, more than 92% of first-time bar takers from the USC Gould School of Law’s JD program cleared one of the nation’s most challenging professional hurdles: the California bar exam. Gould graduates also excelled beyond the Golden State, with 97% passing bar exams in other jurisdictions, including New York and Washington, D.C. Behind those impressive results is a robust support system designed to help students succeed long before exam day. At the center of that effort is USC Gould’s Academic Success Program (ASP), led by Director Sara Berman and Associate Director Barrett Schreiner, whose comprehensive approach equips students with the skills, strategies and confidence needed to thrive on the bar exam and beyond.
“We emphasize collaboration,” says Berman, who is a professor of lawyering skills. “We work to build community and encourage students to support each other. One of the most incredible parts of Gould, part of why we stand out as an exceptional law school, is our strong sense of community — the Trojan Family is 100% real.”
“The ASP team takes a comprehensive ‘admission to admission’ approach, from admission to law school through admission to the bar,” says Berman. “We begin with summer prelaw programming, including the multi-day Gould Preview, where students learn what to expect and how to thrive in law school before 1L orientation, continue with robust curricular and co-curricular content during law school, and finish with post-graduate bar advising and a simulated bar exam.”
“We believe strongly that every single student is capable of succeeding at Gould, passing the bar and excelling as a lawyer,” says Schreiner, a professor of lawyering skills. “Our job is to give them the tools and support to get there.”
Making law school ‘more human’
Berman and Schreiner attribute the ASP’s effectiveness to three core elements: growth mindset, community-building and preparation through practice.
Growth mindset — the idea that abilities can be learned — helps normalize struggle and boost motivation. “Law school is supposed to be hard, even for the brilliant students who’ve gotten into Gould,” Schreiner says. “We help students see challenges as opportunities.”
For Ian Finley (JD 2025), that message was immediately apparent. “ASP made law school feel more human and less intimidating. At Gould Preview, professors and students were upfront that law school is hard, but you can do it — even if you don’t have the skills yet. Then they proceeded to teach us some of those skills.”
Now clerking in the Central District of California and heading next to the Ninth Circuit, Finley credits ASP with helping him become a licensed attorney. He is thrilled to return as an adjunct professor and alumni bar coach — a newly created role — after serving for two years as a student ASP Fellow. “I’m a Trojan for life,” he says. “What better way to support our law school than to show every student they can pass the bar?”
Gould’s ASP also prioritizes belonging as a foundation for both learning and professional identity formation, as students begin to see themselves as future lawyers. “I want to emphasize how much of a priority it is for us to make sure every single student feels like they belong,” says Berman, who serves on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP) Law School Assistance Committee. “We take great pride in creating the most effective environment for learning in our classes and workshops; this includes helping everyone to feel like an integral part of the Gould community.”
Berman and Schreiner also share their expertise in academic success beyond Gould, publishing, presenting nationally and serving on committees. They co-authored the article “Teaching Strategies for Building Belonging and Creating Community in Online and In-Person Legal Education,” published in St. Mary’s Law Journal in 2025, and they were invited to give two joint presentations at the 13th annual meeting of the Association of Academic Support Educators (of which they are both members) in May at UNLV: one on law teaching strategies and the other on building confidence and professional identity formation.
In addition to serving on the ABA’s CoLAP committee, Berman also works with leading scholars as part of the Collaboratory on Legal Education and Professional Licensing, serves on the AI and the Future of Legal Practice (AIFLP) Advisory Board, created by the Thomson Reuters Institute in 2026 to guide the legal profession through the adoption of artificial intelligence, and BARBRI’s NextGen Advisory Committee, and Berman publishes extensively in the areas of student success. With major changes to every bar exam in the country expected by 2028, Gould’s ASP continues to evolve. And Berman has already updated many of the bar-related books in her law success series published by West Academic — with new prelaw and 3L volumes forthcoming.
Mastering content and learning to learn
Practical training, emphasizing law school exam skills and demonstrating lawyering skills forms an integral part of every class and workshop Berman and Schreiner offer at Gould, from the moment students set foot on campus to the time they are licensed. And they prioritize early, transparent information about the bar exam.
“The bar is a huge life event that requires full-time study for eight to 10 weeks,” Berman says. “Students need to plan for success early on, based on reliable information that is tailored to their needs.” Hands-on work begins on day one and continues through the home stretch with skills workshops and bar prep sessions along with a two-day simulated bar exam experience.
“Olympic athletes don’t compete without training under competition conditions. That’s the idea behind the simulated bar. It’s a trial run — pun intended,” Berman says.
The simulated exam is one of many new offerings instituted since Berman and Schreiner joined Gould in 2023. Another is alumni bar coaches for 3Ls and bar takers. The professors also co-teach a new 1L Legal Profession and two upper-division courses, Topics in Business Organizations Law and Legal Analysis of Evidence. These courses infuse skills training into doctrinal contexts — a unique and highly effective approach that leverages cutting-edge learning science.
In addition to substantive legal content, Gould’s ASP emphasizes independent learning, and the professors see themselves as “guides, coaches, inspirers and motivators.” “We’re focused on developing lifelong learners,” Schreiner says. “That’s what it takes to be a lawyer.”
Berman also stresses the need for nimbleness for new lawyers. She adds: “Students we are teaching now will experience a new bar exam in 2028 and monumental changes to the legal profession.”
And Berman adds, “we look forward to continuing to guide our amazing students toward success and to collaborating with our extraordinary colleagues as we all prepare for the path ahead.”
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