Distinguished Western faculty member Tina Schindler is passionate about helping law students pass their bar exams and become proficient and successful attorneys.
For the past 17 years, Schindler has been designing bar exam support curriculum, directing bar study programs and publishing bar prep books and materials. With the goal of providing affordable supplements, her efforts have significantly contributed to the success of countless students, helping them become licensed attorneys. “If you put together the right curriculum, you can help students from all walks of life and that is rewarding to me,” Schindler explained.
She recalled once helping a student who had been trying to pass the exam for 11 years. “I volunteered my time and met with her every week on Zoom and she passed,” Schindler said. “I have a relationship with my students… a lot of them have reached out and stayed in touch for years. One of my old students is now a professor at Western State.”
Schindler’s goal has always been to provide a useful and affordable test prep solution that is accessible to all students. Schindler believes her role and that of law faculty at large is to help the next generation of attorneys succeed. “A lot of faculty at many law schools are focused mainly on scholarly publications,” she said. “I think the future of schools like Western that provide an opportunity to students that otherwise wouldn’t have one, is to focus on teaching and scholarship that enables their students to perform better. Sadly we are seeing many law schools that serve underrepresented populations close, regardless of how well published their faculty is. I think the shift for these schools to survive will require a more hands-on teaching approach to remain in compliance with ABA standards.”
Schindler’s own journey into law was not straightforward. Initially, she planned to go into medicine. As an undergraduate, Schindler majored in microbiology and even took the MCAT. At the same time, her roommate and future husband were both in law school. Schindler considered the new career path, realizing she could begin practicing law within three years and pursue patent law, an area of law that often requires a hard science background.
Schindler received a full scholarship to Whittier Law School where she graduated at the top of her class, passing the California bar exam on the first try. During this time, she was also pregnant with her first child. Although she initially practiced patent law, life had something else in store. “My alma mater was struggling and reached out to those of us who were in the top of the class and passed the bar the first time asking if we could help their students.”
Schindler soon realized that supporting students in passing the bar was her real passion. “I felt obligated to help because I know what it’s like to be a student who didn’t have a law school prep course before taking the bar,” Schindler said. “My mom had me at 18 and I was the first person in my family to go to college… I’ve had a job since I was 14 years old. I know what it’s like to have to navigate uncharted waters alone while watching your peers who were the product of elite private schools, had access to tutors, and had family members helping them that were already working in the fields they pursued.”
From there, her impact in the space has only grown. Schindler has graded and lectured for bar preparation companies, served on committees related to bar passage through the Association of Academic Support Educators (AASE) and been invited to present on bar exam topics at various national conferences.
“You can help people who just need a little bit of extra support that they can’t afford on their own,” she said. “I found that rewarding and not anything that I would have anticipated doing.” Her experience tutoring students for the bar at her alma mater led to an offer to teach there. Later she joined the faculty at Western State.
Today, she is on the tenure track at Western State teaching doctrinal classes. It was another shift for Schindler but she embraced the change wholeheartedly. “Since 2007, I had always done academic and bar support but I thought this would be a good challenge for me and give me a different perspective,” she said. “Now that I’m teaching in this position, I see the importance of coordination between academic and bar support faculty and doctrinal faculty. I think to better help the students, we need to all collaborate to enable student success. I think all professors should consider different teaching styles and be open to trying new approaches to foster student success.”
Schindler plans to continue supporting her students in their academic studies with the hope it continues to help them in their future bar prep and in practice. She emphasizes the importance of teaching and its far reach. “If you’re teaching groups of students, hundreds over the course of years, those students are going to leave and go into the world and make an impact,” she said. “By providing students with real-life practice opportunities and extra support in the classroom, we’re actually helping the public more.”