https://www.spokesman.com/stor...longer-be-required-/

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.

Typically, students will complete an internship between their second and third years of law school, gaining about 400 hours of experience, according to the task force’s report. Then, if they do about three hours a week of legal work through their final year of law school, students could have 500 hours of experience upon graduation, leaving the portfolio to complete before licensure.

Lastly, law clerks can become lawyers without enrolling in law school by completing standardized educational materials and benchmarks under the guidance of a mentoring attorney, along with the 500 hours of work as a licensed legal intern.

While people always have been able to study law under another attorney, then become licensed themselves by taking the bar exam, this new pathway creates standardized education materials and removes the examination requirement.

More at link

Oh good grief Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! I saw the magic word in that article.....

DIVERSE



"Blocks marginalized groups". Yeah! Because if you're stupid as phukk, you shouldn't be granted a license to do 'X'!!! And I don't give a popcorn fart what color one is. I'm a pasty white Italian dude and had to SCRAPE and FIGHT for EVERYTHING I got. NO ONE gave me SHIT to help me get to where I am today!

Oh well...let's keep watering EVERYTHING down to the Lowest Common Denominator. I've been in a courtroom 4 times...do I qualify to be a lawyer?? Let's just give people pilot's licenses who have 500 hours of RIDING TIME in an airplane...I'm sure they're qualified.

No thank you. I believe I'd like my lawyer vetted not only by schooling, training, and internship, but also by TESTING. THAT is the "standard".

It's just more Leftarded DIE bullshit! JSMFH....

I’d be the first to tell you that passing the Bar exam doesn’t tell one much about a lawyer’s expertise. I’ve met some stupid ass lawyers who passed it, and some smart ones who failed it.

Not sure about their alternatives, though, and I don’t buy the “disadvantaged groups” bullshit.

quote:

Originally posted by Milliron:
I’d be the first to tell you that passing the Bar exam doesn’t tell one much about a lawyer’s expertise. I’ve met some stupid ass lawyers who passed it, and some smart ones who failed it.

Good point Milliron!!! Same holds true for those I've had to deal with that had their PhD; some were dumber than a sack of hammers. Reminded me of Sheriff Buford T. Justice's line in "Smokey and the Bandit"....."You sumbitches couldn't close a umbrella."

And some smart people...REALLY smart people...just don't test well.

quote:

Originally posted by Milliron:
I’d be the first to tell you that passing the Bar exam doesn’t tell one much about a lawyer’s expertise. I’ve met some stupid ass lawyers who passed it, and some smart ones who failed it.

I would say that that is true of any professional licensing exam. In an ideal world, students would be fully vetted by and during their course of formal education. In that world, there would be no need for a generic exam to assess a basic knowledge as that would have already been shown to competent instructors.

While I don't disagree with this move by WA and OR on the surface, I vehemently disagree with THEIR reasons for doing it. This is all about DEI and upsetting the apple cart just because they can and making a further mockery of the legal system. Soon enough, Shanequa, with her sheepskin from the AAA Law School Diploma Company of Dellavin, IN in hand, will be the legal expert the left relies upon.

Hi, I am a non-binary lesbian, who's pronoun is Xur, and I want to represent YOU!

what could go wrong

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Soon enough, Shanequa, with her sheepskin from the AAA Law School Diploma Company of Dellavin, IN in hand, will be the legal expert the left relies upon.

And they'll get their lunch eaten in court by the real, competent, trained attorneys.

Just passing the bar exam doesn't make you a legal expert, or a good lawyer.

So they decided instead of lowering the Bar…just remove it altogether…..sounds about right these days

I always thought it was odd that you could pass the bar exam but if you did not go to college and get a law degree you cannot be a lawyer.
At least that is what was portrayed in the TV Show "Suits".
I thought that was just a show ploy but apparently not?

speaking of bar, i'm working on a case right now and will not stop til i finish every last bottle

Sigh. I mean. Sigh.

Nice blast from the past, Gustover!

The diploma school Radar is using to get his HS diploma is the Triple-A High School Diploma Company of Delevan, Indiana. Gary Burghoff, who played Radar, lived in Delavan, Wisconsin in his youth.

What’s Next? you won’t even need to be a citizen to practice law in Washington?

quote:

law clerks can become lawyers without enrolling in law school by completing standardized educational materials and benchmarks under the guidance of a mentoring attorney, along with the 500 hours of work as a licensed legal intern.

This would seem to be on par with the requirements to become a licensed Plumber or Electrician...I believe the requirements to become a licensed Beautician/Barber are FAR more stringent in the VAST majority of states!

This is the natural progression after lawyers not being able to claim they are better than the other guy. The bar would have you believe that all lawyers are created equal. Umm yeah.

https://www.quora.com/Why-cant...r-than-other-lawyers

quote:

Originally posted by wcb6092:
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.”

Since when is there a shortage of GD lawyers?

sure lawyers, they've already dumbed down the med schools, pilots, yada yada, house them in buildings designed and built by aff action architects, hope for a tremor

quote:

In an ideal world, students would be fully vetted by and during their course of formal education. In that world, there would be no need for a generic exam to assess a basic knowledge as that would have already been shown to competent instructors.

LOL, shows today and for quite some time now that degrees today don't mean shit.
That includes tons of people with degrees that know zero about even the profession they have that degree in or the plethora of worthless degrees period.
Not there is not some redeeming value in a college education, there is and I value my degree including the experiences from it but it is in no way a final evaluation of ability or experience.

We are FAR from an ideal world.