The Supreme Court today rejected a proposal that would have allowed prospective lawyers to bypass the traditional bar exam as a way to become licensed attorneys. The court’s unanimous order described the Alternative Pathway plan as having bar applicants “engage in a period of supervised practice and generate a portfolio of work product while advising and representing actual clients” (a portfolio that “would be subsequently graded by a special committee to determine whether the applicant has demonstrated the minimum competence to practice law”) and also “pass up to two performance tests.” The plan was submitted by a working group comprised of five members who dissented from recommendations made by the State Bar’s Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of the Bar Exam.
The court said the proposal runs afoul of current statutory law and also “implicates an array of ethical and practical problems that would compromise the [Portfolio Bar Examination’s] fairness, validity, and reliability as a measure of an applicant’s competence.” Among other things, the order says the supervision component isn’t good because it “will introduce variance in the assessed work product dependent on the aptitudes of the supervisor rather than the applicant.”
The order also, however, approved with modifications most of the Blue Ribbon Commission’s majority recommendations, including the development of “a California-specific bar examination.” One approved recommendation calls for a test “that is fair, equitable, and minimizes disparate performance impacts based on race, gender, ethnicity, disability, and other immutable characteristics.” The court declined to adopt a proposal for reciprocity licensing of attorneys from other jurisdictions.
By a separate letter from the court’s Clerk/Executive Officer Jorge Navarrete, the court also today turned down a request by law school deans to further lower the bar exam’s passing score.
The court has apparently not yet ruled on a State Bar proposal — resubmitted six days ago — to proceed with a new bar exam written by Kaplan Exam Services.
Related:
Cheryl Miller reports for The Recorder.
“California Supreme Court Rejects State Bar’s Initial Plan for New Bar Exam”
