The Bar Has Been Lowered
When one thinks of law and becoming a certified lawyer, the Bar exam commonly is the first thought that pops up in one's mind. Many have a hate love relationship with the bar. Many find it a simple logic based exam while others view it as a direct exam barring (pun intended) them out of their dream profession and job. However, this constant turmoil and struggles hundreds of thousands of law students face a year may be erased. The American Bar Association’s (ABA) legal education sector may endorse other alternative pathways to have a lawyer license that does not involve passing or even writing the bar exam. In fact in places like Washington, the bar is no longer required to become a licensed attorney, and one has the choice to attain it through a plethora of other different avenues and ways. Washington is not even the only state, as other states, including Minnesota, Nevada, and Utah are all examining alternative pathways to licensure.
There were a couple of reasons why this push for an alternative method to gain lawyer status has been advocated for.
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Firstly, after constant backlash and the public's questioning of the exam actually measuring the competence of students as lawyers, the ABA formed a council specifically looking into these queries. Specifically, they have re-examined their policy of “every applicant for admission to the bar should be subject to examination by public authority” and decided that the Bar is not a sufficient way to fulfill that policy. Instead, the ABA’s council of the section of legal education and admission to the bar after discussing for many months has come to the conclusion that it is essential to create diverse pathways to licensure.
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Secondly, the task force also found that traditional exams like that Bar has “disproportionately and unnecessarily blocks” marginalized groups such as the socio economically disenfranchised or individuals from minority groups from becoming practicing attorneys. This is due to the fact that the preparation for the traditional bar exam requires a substantial amount of funding, resources, and time, which has historically put minority groups at a disadvantage. This is not only a conjecture but rather backed up by empirical data. In fact, exam data shows longstanding racial disparities in the success rates of passing the bar. In 2023, caucasian exam takers had a first time pass rate of nearly 85% according to ABA, while that number was 71% for Hispanic examinees and only 58% for African American takers.
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Lastly, many argue that the bar exam does not represent the competency for students. On a practical basis, the bar exam seems to discredit experience and simply tests how well of a test taker students are, which is not a skill set required in the actual law field. Also, being forced to memorize certain facts and figures will not manifest in the actual world, as no lawyer will go into trial purely relying on their memory. In addition, many lawyers have agreed that the countless sleepless nights and the weeks of studying for the exam would be better spent on more real life applications working within the law sector, preparing the students for real world scenarios and not just preparing for fictional hypothetical situations on a piece of paper.
So if the bar is out of the question, what other alternatives will there be?
Worry not, as many states have already started to enact many of these alternatives that address the problems outlined above.
One method that has been advocated for is the apprenticeship program for law school students who will be required to work under and assist an already practicing attorney for six months and then submit a portfolio for review. This experience will equip students with real world applications and skill sets such as how to interact with clients, reviewing cases, and being within an actual firm, getting a feel for their potential future.
The other option that was advocated for was to complete 12 credits of skills coursework, and being able to submit and have a record for 500 hours of hands-on legal work such as reviewing documents suggesting strategies, etc prior to graduation. This is a strategy that has already been executed in Washington in which all the work must be submitted for the Washington State bar to review.
However, in response to these changes, the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which is in control of the bar exam is debuting and initiating a revised test with changes to the same decade-long test starting July of 2026, in attempt to protect the need for the test to be consistent, fair and reliable, and is indeed a valid assessment across all genders, and race, and ethnicities to admission.
So this begs the question: will removing the bar lower the bar for the field of law, or removing the bar completely enables more people to step into this beautiful profession? I guess only time will tell.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/mar/15/supreme-court-bar-exam-will-no-longer-be-required-/