Attorney Christopher L. Wiesmueller doesn’t want Wisconsin to terminate its diploma privilege for graduates of the state’s two accredited law schools.
In fact, he loves it. He simply wants to extend it to aspiring attorneys who don’t come from Marquette University or the University Wisconsin law schools.
Wiesmueller, a graduate of Oklahoma City University Law School, is seeking revisions to the methods by which an out-of-state graduate can practice law in Wisconsin.
“A lot of people see this as an attack on the diploma privilege and that’s not the way I view it,” said Wiesmueller. “Frankly, it’s an attack on the bar exam.”
In a federal law suit against the Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners (BBE) and the state Supreme Court, he contends that the diploma privilege, which is only offered in Wisconsin, discriminates against graduates purely on a geographic basis and that graduates from law schools outside of the state should be given the same opportunity to practice without the rigors of a bar exam.
“Why a school just outside the border can’t join in the diploma privilege, seems to me to discriminate against interstate commerce,” said Wiesmueller. “To say you can’t participate just on the basis of where you are located seems unfair to me.”
Wiesmueller took and passed the Wisconsin Bar in 2007 and has practiced at Kuchler and Cotton Law Offices in Waukesha since November.
Twice Dismissed
The suit, Wiesmueller v. Kosobucki, No. 07-211, has been dismissed twice, most recently by Western District Court Judge Barbara B. Crabb on June 18.
Last year, District Court Judge John C. Shabaz dismissed the case and ruled that the issue of class certification was moot. But Wiesmueller appealed the issue to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Richard Posner reversed the lower court on the point of class certification.
Crabb, like her judicial colleagues in the past, did not rule on the merits of whether or not the imposition of a bar exam infringes on interstate commerce. Although she dismissed Wiesmueller’s case, she did grant class status for another case involving his wife and another out-of-state law student.
In her ruling, Crabb said anyone who applies to practice law in Wisconsin within 30 days of graduating from a law school outside the state can join the lawsuit.
“It’s going to be a cyclical thing where something like 200 people could filter through each year,” said Wiesmueller, who indicated that out-of-state graduates intent on taking the bar exam in Wisconsin first will qualify for the class.
Wiesmueller said he plans to appeal the case to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and represent his wife, Corrine and fellow Oklahoma City University Law School graduate, Heather Devan.
Since his wife and Devan are not yet licensed to practice anywhere, Wiesmueller hopes the court will address the merits of the case. Wiesmueller was already a member of the Wisconsin Bar at the time of the other dismissals.
Wiesmueller said he filed appeal papers during the week of June 23.
Wisconsin Department of Justice spokesman Kevin St. John said the organization will continue to represent the interests of the BBE and the Supreme Court.
“It’s pretty straightforward in that the DOJ will continue to advocate for the diploma privilege in its current form,” said St. John.
When told that Wiesmueller is not seeking an end to the diploma privilege, just a modification, St. John said that does not alter the stance of the DOJ.
“It doesn’t change my comment,” said St. John. “We believe the way that Wisconsin does things is constitutional and we will continue to advance that position before the federal court.”
Expensive and Long
Although Wiesmueller passed the bar on his first try, he felt the process was unnecessarily tedious, compared to that of applying for the diploma privilege.
According to the BBE exam application, the two-day exam costs $450 and consists of a six-hour multiple choice Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) and eight 45-minute Wisconsin essay questions. A total score of 258 is required for passage.
Application costs for the diploma privilege are around $200 and graduates are admitted at two swearing in ceremonies approximately two weeks to one month after graduation.
Wiesmueller said he took the bar exam in July 2007 and did not get admitted until October.
“If the exam was four hours on a Saturday afternoon and offered 12 times a year, it would be no problem,” said Wiesmueller. “But it’s a two-day exam, plus one day of registration offered only twice a year, so it can be a big delay when you finally get admitted.”
BBE Director John Kosobucki declined to comment on the lawsuit directly, but said it takes about five to six weeks to process the exams and notify the applicants and then another few weeks to schedule admission.
“It depends on the individual applicant and the extent of his or her file,” said Kosobucki.
“Those whose files are complete can be sworn in at the group ceremonies on the dates set by the Clerk’s Office, which is usually two-to-three weeks after exam results are mailed.”
SCR 40.09(2) sets the deadline for admission for successful bar exam applicants at one year after certification by the Board.
While Wiesmueller conceded that admission time in Wisconsin after taking the exam is similar to that of other states, he insisted that Wisconsin has the opportunity to be a leader in revising the admissions process.
“The state Supreme Court said that they don’t see the bar exam as necessary if you graduate from [Wisconsin’s] two law schools,” said Wiesmueller. “That being the case, I don’t see why the exam should be necessary in its current form if you graduate from any other ABA accredited law school.”
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June 25th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
The basic difference is that the Wisconsin Supreme Court sets the required curriculum for law school students in Wisconsin to conform with the diploma privilege. In other states, law school students can take whatever classes they want and thus not receive a balanced legal education covering all the basic areas of law. Offering the diploma privilege to grads of law schools who majored in the legal equivalent of “basket weaving” classes would harm the public and be unfair to our own grads.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Not to mention the emphasis on Wisconsin law found at UW Law School (and Marquette, I presume). I can only assume law schools in other states emphasize, at least to some degree, the laws of the state in which they are located.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Most accredited law schools require that students perform satisfactorily in a core curriculum including torts, property, civil and criminal procedure, constitutional law, criminal law, contracts, professional responsibility, trusts and estates, in the first year.
See the required courses for U. of IL. Law School:
http://www.law.uiuc.edu/academics/courses.asp
U. of Mi. Law School:
http://cgi2.www.law.umich.edu/_ClassSchedule/CourseList.asp
U. of Mn. Law School:
http://www.law.umn.edu/prospective/firstyear.html
U. of WI Law School:
http://law.wisc.edu/prospective/firstyear.htm
What Wisconsin requires seems to be equal to or less than what is required by the major neighboring state law schools. I’m surprised that a student could graduate from law school in WI without ever taking a course in constitutional law!
It’s time for WI to require it’s students to take bar exams and to get off the high horse of believing the required curriculum at the WI law schools is so superior to that of other law schools.
June 25th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Nick and Dan nailed it!!
(…. diploma privilege, which is only offered in Wisconsin, discriminates against graduates purely on a geographic basis.)
Purely geographical – Come on!?!?
And there are lots of things in life that we think are unfair…. deal with it.
It sounds to me like Wiesmueller just wants to use his position to try and get his wife and his friend in via what he sees as the ‘easy route.’
Trust me, with all the agency staffing issues due to the state budget mess, Wisconsin is in NO position “…to be a leader in revising the admissions process.”
June 25th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Actually,
Ms. Wiesmueller and Ms. Devan are currently enduring through the rigorous bar exam process. They are slated to take the exam in July. This law suit is not an attempt to allow anyone to take the “easy route.” When viewed from all angles, the bar exam tests very little substantive (and practical) Wisconsin law. This is a matter of Constitutional law, not a single individual’s quest based on principle.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:10 am
This lawsuit is a complete waste of time; insulting to the State of Wisconsin and its law schools and simply saying it’s a matter of Constitutional law is no argument at all. It’s another case of people showing up late, not doing the work required and then demanding to be treated as if they had paid their dues. What these people really want is a free ride without making any sacrifices. Anyone who wants to use the diploma privilege should go to a Wisconsin law school. If they don’t that’s too bad for them.
June 26th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
The only thing this lawsuit could possibly accomplish is the abolishment of the diploma privilege. If Weismueller really loves the diploma privilege and wishes to attack the bar exam, he is going about it in entirely the wrong way.
On the slightest chance he should prevail, there is no way the Supreme Court is going to open the diploma privilege to graduates of all accredited law schools. They will instead be forced to revoke the diploma privilege for all and require bar examinations for all applicants. Since this isn’t the apparent goal of this litigation, it should be discontinued immediately.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I support the diploma privilege and agree this suit is doomed to fail because there is a rational basis for treating law grads from out of state schools differently from those who attended one of the two Wisconsin schools, and that is the supervision and input that the Supreme Court has over the curricula at the Wisconsin schools. A rational basis is all that is required.
Having said that, I have taken (and passed) another state’s bar, and found it to be very useful: it was a great comprehensive review of everything I learned (or should have learned) in school–it all makes a lot more sense when you have the rest of the education to put it in context. And its not that hard. “Rigorous” is a little strong, and if the prep for a bar exam is something one must “endure,” then I hate to think what Corrine calls trial prep.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:13 pm
To Mr. Zales: that is not correct, all ABA accredited law schools have set requirements on what classes are required to be taken. Further, the “legal equivalent of basket weaving classes” argument is weak considering that most legal employers look at transcripts to see what classes the applicant took in law school. Lastly, The Wisconsin bar exam only tests (for certain) one exclusive Wisconsin law subject, which is professional responsibility. The vast majority of the Wisconsin Bar Exam is written by National Conference of Bar Examiners.
But more to the point:
Mr. Wiesmueller is suing because the advantages afforded to graduates of Wisconsin-Madison and Marquette are so substantial that they violate not only the Commerce Clause but the Privilege and Immunities Clause of Article IV, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. The cost of not only taking the bar exam, coupled with bar review courses, the two to three months of constant study required, and most importantly, the disadvantage in the job market, require the system to be changed.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Also, to Ms. Packard:
It is ironic that a person that is advocating for diploma privilege would provide an incorrect legal analysis to this subject. Mr. Wiesmueller is arguing that diploma privilege violates the Commerce Clause. Rational basis test is not the applicable standard. If the statute is deemed facially discriminatory then it will be presumed to be unconstitutional, and a statute will only surivive if there are no other law necessary to serve a compelling state interest. If the statute deemed to be facially neutral then the courts will look to see if the statute has a discriminatory purpose or effect. If it is deemed to have a discriminatory purpose or effect then the statute again is presumed unconstitutional and can only survive after applying strict scrutiny. If the court finds that the statute is not facial discriminatory, nor is it discriminatory in purpose or effect, then the courts will apply a balancing test weighing its burden on interstate commerce vs. the state’s interest.
Also Ms. Packard, the bar exam does not seem so “hard” if you are not depended on passing it to start your career. There doesn’t seem to be as much pressure on passing the bar exam when you are already allowed to start your craft in another state.
February 26th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Mr Zales,
Get over yourself. Not everyone expects to end up in your wonderful state. So applying to a Wisconsin school was probably not on their list of things to do. I am one of those. I am one of those who is taking the exam. I have to jump through the hoop but I am doing it, but I don’t appreciate attitude from someone who has probably not even left the state of Wisconsin his entire life.
April 10th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
So Mr. W is a recent grad and passer of a bar exam. And he now wants to try out his credentials and make a name for himself. Isn’t that the nature of the classic liberal education, to try out your new-found knowledge on identifying and attacking social ills? If he was a carpenter, he would build something. He’s a lawyer, he’s doing what lawyer’s do. Although, and from an emotional standpoint, there is a sense this case may be motivated by a kindergarten paradigm of equivalency; everyone should have the same graham cracker and milk snack.
Personally, I am in favor of, and have benefitted from, the diploma privilege, so I hope Mr. W does not prevail. However, we are all aware the law is transmutable, and if the diploma privilege no longer passes muster, then it’s time is done. It seems as though, among all the challenges to current law taking place in courtrooms around the world, the defender of the D.P. are advocating that no shot across the bow should have been taken in the first place.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:37 am
There are a small number of states that will not admit on motion a lawyer first admitted by diploma privilege. These are states that abut states that formerly had diploma privilege. None of them – repeat: NONE of them – regulated their diploma privilege with the rigor that Wisconsin regulates it (I once astonished the Chief Justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court by reciting the Wisconsin 30-credit and 60-credit rules). Regrettably, the Wisconsin BBE is gradually eliminating questions on Wisconsin law in its bar examination, for what reason I do not know (but can suspect). Disclosure: I was the Director of the BBE for 11 years.
April 16th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Interesting that he claims he’s not trying to do away with the diploma privilege when he agrees in court that getting rid of it would be a compromise. Also, since no other school has applied for the diploma privilege, how can he claim he just wants it extended to other schools.
September 11th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
There are no fair and equitable review process in any state for people who “they say” fail the bar exam. I have been unable to question the bar in any way or to challenge the grading system. It is merely take what grade you get and you do not get to question or challenge it. That is why the bar exam must be abolished. Having graduated lawschool in 1988 I have been prohibited from practicing law due to what I feel has been unfair practices by law examiners. I even caught the Board of Law Examiners cheating in Mississippi against me yet nothing was done when I called them out on it . The people who have sworn to protect my right to fair and equal treatment turned their backs on me. Because of this, I and my family have suffered financially. The bar exam process is unfair and the diploma privilege must be reinstituted.
October 7th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I went to a top twenty law school (UCLA), passed the CA bar exam on my first attempt, and practiced law for six years in CA. But I was not eligible for WI bar admission since I had not practiced full time for three of the five years preceding my move to WI. I eventually took the bar exam here and scored in the top 2% of all examinees in the nation on the MBE and the top 3% on the WI part of the exam. I would definitively say that all the time and money I spent to pass the exam was a WASTE. I think the current system is unfair and discriminatory. The diploma privilege is a joke!