Kim Kardashian. (Photo: Shutterstock.)

A reality star turned aspiring lawyer. A $125 million naming gift spurring student backlash. A long-awaited reversal in the fortunes of bar exam takers.

Some of the big legal education stories in 2019 were years in the making, such as murdered Florida State law professor Dan Markel's accused killers finally facing trial and the ABA's new bar pass standards getting adopted after years of spirited debate. Other stories seemingly came out of the blue, such as the surprise announcement from U.S. News & World Report that it's starting a law school ranking focused on faculty scholarship. Here, we've rounded up our top 10 legal education stories of 2019. Here's hoping 2020 is just as newsy.

Bar Exam Turnaround—Flagging bar pass rates have plagued legal education for the better part of a decade, but 2019 pass rates—on the whole—were up for both the February and July administrations. The average score on the Multistate Bar Exam, which is the 200-question multiple-choice portion of the test, increased 1.2 points in February and 1.6 points in July. Pass rates rose in most jurisdictions. California's July pass rate, for example, went from 40.7% in 2018 to 50.1% in 2019. New York's pass rate rose 2 percentage points to 65%. And Florida's pass rate increase 7 percentage points to land at 74% in July.

Major Gifts, New Names—2019 might just go down as legal education's year of donor drama. The University of Alabama returned $21 million to donor Hugh Culverhouse Jr. and stripped his name from the school in June after a public spat over—depending on who you believe—abortion rights or donor meddling. Then law students and alumni at the University of Pennsylvania staged a mutiny when administrators sought to change the school's nickname to Carey Law after receiving $125 million from the W.P. Carey Foundation in November. (Long term, the school will be known as Penn Carey Law). Things have gone smoother at Pepperdine University, after the law school changed its name to Pepperdine University Rick J. Caruso School of Law in October after receiving a $50 million gift.

New Enrollment Plateaus—Early signs were promising for continued growth in first-year enrollment in 2019. The number of people applying to law school was up 3% during this year's admissions cycle. But that didn't translate into more new students on campus this fall. The total number of first-year students this year dipped slightly, throwing cold water on the notion that political turmoil would prompt a sustained recovery in law school enrollment. But some insiders say that admissions offices were simply more selective this year in who they brought in in a bid to keep postgraduate employment rates high and ensure better bar pass rates.

Kim Kardashian, Esq.?—Sorry haters, but Kim Kardashian's decision to pursue a law degree is big news, maybe not in the halls of the nation's law schools, but in the general public's awareness of what lawyers can achieve and how one even becomes an attorney. Her criminal justice reform efforts are putting a spotlight on an issue that's not on the radar of many people. Of course, the reality star and mogul's decision to study the law as an apprentice rather than attend law school is an unusual one, and it comes with long odds of passing the bar exam. But her academic pursuits are still having an impact on one or two traditional law professors. Just ask University of Washington law professor Steve Calandrillo.

A Tougher Bar Pass Standard—It took more than six years and several false starts, but in May the American Bar Association's Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar finally adopted a long-discussed change to its bar pass standard for law schools. Schools now have two years to ensure that at least 75% of their graduates pass the licensing exam, down from the previous five years. The proposal was controversial, with opponents saying it would hit law schools with more diverse student bodies the hardest. The change is already having an impact: The higher standard is one reason the University of La Verne College of Law in November decided to forgo its ABA accreditation and seek state accreditation instead.

Justice for Dan Markel?—Five years after Florida State University law professor Dan Markel was gunned down in the driveway of his home, two of his alleged killed faced trial in a Tallahassee courtroom. (A third killer pleaded guilty in 2016.) After nearly three weeks of testimony, the jury found Sigfredo Garcia guilty of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison in October. But the jury deadlocked on the charges against Garcia's girlfriend, Katherine Magbanua, who stands accused of helping set up a murder-for-hire. Magbanua is slated to face retrial in April, while Garcia has already appealed his conviction.

U.S. News Shakes Things Up—Few things rile up legal educators as much as the U.S. News & World Report rankings. And the magazine really got professors buzzing in February when it unveiled plans to begin a new ranking of law schools according to "scholarly impact," a measure that would take into account the scholarly productivity of faculties and the citations their work generates. We don't yet know exactly what the new ranking will look like, it's due to premiere this coming year, but U.S. News has said it will be separate from a school's overall ranking. At least for now.

ABA Crackdown Continues—The American Bar Association's Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions kept up the pressure on underperforming law schools in 2019. Thomas Jefferson School of Law got the worst of it: The ABA yanked its accreditation this month. (The school plans to stay open with accreditation from the State Bar of California.) Other schools that found themselves in the ABA's crosshairs include Florida Coastal School of Law, which has seen its application to become a nonprofit campus twice rejected, as well as the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law and the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. Atlanta's John Marshall Law School and Western New England School of Law were also found out of compliance with the accreditation standards, but worked their way back into the ABA's good graces before the year was out.

The Digital LSAT Is Here—Aspiring lawyers who took the Law School Admission Test in September left their No. 2 pencils behind. It was the first fully digital administration of the entrance exam, delivered entirely on tablets. The Law School Administration began phasing in the digital LSAT in August after five years of testing and development. The transition hasn't been without its kinks. The November LSAT was plagued with problems ranging from a shortage of proctors to malfunctioning internet connections. But the LSAT has finally joined every other major standardized admission test in ditching paper.

Big Changes in Law Firm and Judicial Clerk Hiring—Law school career services offices had their hands full in 2019 with several key changes in how students secure jobs. This summer marked the first year of a resurrected federal clerk hiring plan that aimed to restore some to the clerk hiring process and encourage federal judges to wait until potential clerks have completed their second year of law school to conduct interviews. Meanwhile, the National Association for Law Placement loosened the reins on law firm hiring during the on-campus interview season by doing away with the timing guidelines on when and how law firms extend summer associate offers. This fall's interviewing season was the first without those deadlines in place.