Wisconsin’s diploma privilege expanding to other states

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Once again, Wisconsin’s forward, progressive policies are influencing other states.

For the past several years, the Badger State was the only state with a diploma privilege. Graduates from the University of Wisconsin Law School and Marquette University Law School who wish to practice law in Wisconsin did not have to sit for a bar exam. The concept dates back to the 1800s where aspiring lawyers trained through apprenticeships. It was abolished by California in the early 1900s, and then several other states followed. By 1950, less than a dozen states had diploma privilege, according to Ohio Northern University Law Review.

The American Bar Association (ABA) reported The Washington (state) Supreme Court has adopted alternative pathways to a law license, becoming the second state to do so in a little more than four months.

Two orders from Washington State’s highest court on the Ides of March noted after more than three years of extensive study, the court decided to provide alternative “pathways” to practicing law.

According to a press release obtained by the Wisconsin Law Journal, Washington states three pathways to practice include:

• For law school graduates – A six-month apprenticeship under the guidance and supervision of a qualified attorney; during that time, the graduates would be required to complete three courses of standardized coursework.
• For law students –  Graduate practice-ready by completing 12 qualifying skills credits and 500 hours of work as a licensed legal intern; they would be required to submit a portfolio of this work to waive the bar exam.
• For law clerks (enrolled in a non-law school course of study), creation of additional standardized educational materials and benchmarks to be completed under the guidance of their tutors that dovetail with the requirements of the law school graduate apprenticeship, and 500 hours of work as a licensed legal intern to be eligible to waive the bar exam.

The Washington state press released noted that Oregon has recently implemented a similar rule.

According to the ABA, in November, Oregon announced some law grads can also skip the bar exam, with an effective date in 2024. Graduates will be required to complete 675 hours of work under the supervision of an experienced attorney and create a portfolio of legal work to be evaluated by bar examiners.

In 2020, during COVID, the state of Louisiana — the only U.S. State to base laws on French civil code, versus British Common law — also suspended the bar exam temporarily, according to NOLA.com.

“Those in favor of diploma privilege argue that the COVID-19 pandemic has created an unconstitutional burden on those who wish to take the bar exam and is a threat to public health as a large in-person gathering,” reported uworld.

Reuters recently reported Colorado and Minnesota have joined other states in making significant changes to their respective bar exams. Many states are switching to the Next Gen bar exam, intended to emphasize legal skills and rely less on the memorization of laws.

The new bar exam also removes three separate components of the current exam, 200-mutliple-choice question Multistate Bar Exam, the Multistate Essay Exam, and the Multistate Performance Test.