Posted on 03/17/2024 9:26:18 AM PDT by llevrok
The bar exam will no longer be required to become a lawyer in Washington, the state Supreme Court ruled in a pair of orders Friday.
The court approved alternative ways to show competency and earn a law license after appointing a task force to examine the issue in 2020.
The Bar Licensure Task Force found that the traditional exam “disproportionally and unnecessarily blocks” marginalized groups from becoming practicing attorneys and is “at best minimally effective” for ensuring competency, according to a news release from the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts.
Washington is the second state to not require the bar exam, following Oregon, which implemented the change at the start of this year. Other states, including Minnesota, Nevada, South Dakota and Utah, are examining alternative pathways to licensure.
“These recommendations come from a diverse body of lawyers in private and public practice, academics, and researchers who contributed immense insight, counterpoints and research to get us where we are today,” Washington Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis, who chaired the task force, said in a statement. “With these alternative pathways, we recognize that there are multiple ways to ensure a competent, licensed body of new attorneys who are so desperately needed around the state.”
There will be three experiential-learning alternatives to the bar exam, each for people following a different path of legal study. The specifics, scale and implementation plan for the pathways have yet to be developed.
Law school graduates can complete a six-month apprenticeship while being supervised and guided by a qualified attorney, along with finishing three courses.
Law students can become practice-ready by completing 12 qualifying skills credits and 500 hours of work as a licensed legal intern. Upon completion of those requirements, they would submit a portfolio of that work to waive the bar exam. ..............
(Excerpt) Read more at spokesman.com ...
Maybe I should move there and become a lawyer.
Here’s what’s going to happen. People will visit the prospective lawyer and see he/she/it is not white. They’ll leave. So, any legitimate non-white lawyers will be hurt.
We need to set a higher bar for lawyers, not eliminate it.
Why require law school? Which law school did Abraham Lincoln attend?
Professional licensing is just a scam to raise prices under the pretense that it protects the public.
I knew a lawyer Got his degree through a correspondence course. Passed the BAR. This test seems kinda stupid knowing they have to give up 3 months or more of their life to prepare. How does that make them a better lawyer?
It’s like those MD’s who work 24 hour shifts in their residency. Is it to weed out the weak ones?
Me thinks they’re lowering the standards due to DEI pressures.
And with that the one holdout elite profession not yet taken over by foreigners begins to topple.
This is true. But the new policy will also open a door to White incompetents.
Soft bigotry of low expectations in action.
Do the states still require the bar exam ???
Just pop in and we’ll stamp the capital L on your forehead
That’s how it used to be.
I have no problem with this
Why just not require them to get a liquor license?
You won’t have to examine any bars any more.
Bar examust be tough. Hillary Clinton flunked it at first try. And she is the smartest woman in America according to Democrats.
Wisconsin has had Diploma Privilege for law school graduates for quite some time.
This will give the out of work Uber drivers options.
Doctors and nurses next.
“”...new attorneys who are so desperately needed around the state.”
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