NY bar exam is a royal pain for Japanese princess' new groom

Plenty of would-be lawyers fail the New York bar exam. Usually, it doesn't make the papers.

Kei Komuro, whose engagement and Oct 26 marriage to Japan's Princess Mako kept their native country rapt, was among the 9,227 people who took the New York bar in July. But as Japanese media outlets widely reported, he wasn't on the pass list released Oct 28 by the New York Board of Law Examiners.

Japan's press has closely tracked Komuro's fledgling legal career since he became engaged in 2017 to Princess Mako, the niece of Emperor Naruhito, and moved to New York to attend Fordham University Law School.

The couple has made headlines thanks in part to Komuro's status as a commoner. Princess Mako, who is now known as Mako Komuro, is no longer a member of the Imperial Family after their marriage. The headlines continued when Kei Komuro, who is already working for a US law firm, apparently failed to pass the bar

But Komuro is hardly alone. The overall pass rate for New York’s July exam was 63 percent, and the two-day attorney licensing exam has long proven especially difficult for foreign-trained attorneys, who made up close to a third of all July examinees.

New York is among just five states that allow attorneys with an LLM — a one-year degree for non-US lawyers known as a Master of Laws — to sit for their bar exam. The pass rate for foreign-trained attorneys on New York’s July test was 31 percent.

Though Komuro began his legal studies in 2018 in Fordham’s LLM program, he isn’t considered a foreign-trained attorney because he went on to earn a JD from Fordham in May. But he likely faces some of the same exam challenges, said Lisa Young, executive director of academics and product at Kaplan Test Prep.

The test includes complex, timed writing and reading comprehension questions, which can be difficult for people whose first language is not English, she said.

“It’s an extremely challenging test for anyone taking it,” but even harder for non-native speakers, Young said.

Komuro did not respond to a request for comment. He is currently a law clerk at law firm Lowenstein Sandler — a common designation for new hires who have not yet passed the bar. A Lowenstein spokesman declined to comment on Komuro’s status, though large law firms typically give incoming associates two chances to pass the exam.

February will be Komuro’s next opportunity to sit for the bar.