For decades, the legal community treated the bar exam the way the elderly talk about getting hit with rulers in school. “Yeah it was unpleasant and unnecessary, but I went through it, so you should too!” They also went through polio but that’s not a reason to bring back unchecked, preventable disease. OK, maybe that’s not a great example right now. The point is, “tradition” is not a valid reason to keep bad policy.
And despite what the institution that made $111 million from the bar exam may say, a one-shot, closed book, generalist exam is bad policy.
Is it a true test of minimum competence? No.
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Will it protect the public from incompetent or unethical attorneys? No.
Does it actually test the skills of a practicing lawyer? No.
Not only does the exam accomplish none of its stated goals, it runs bizarrely contrary to the whole mission of lawyering. We have a profession centered around research and analysis and ask applicants to answer a complex legal question from memory. Or, just as non-sensically, from a curated set of materials that strip the exam of testing any research skills.
Bloomberg Law’s UnCommon Law podcast is doing a dive into the bar exam debate in a new three-part series. The first episode dropped today and features a conversation with, well, me. Check out the conversation here.
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Episode 2 will address the question of diploma privilege and episode 3 will deal with tweaks to the exam itself. The time has come for those of us who’ve already cleared this hurdle to do our part to fix it for the generations coming up. Everyone knows we need some sort of entrance barrier to this profession — let’s start thinking outside of dogged addiction to tradition to come up with something that actually works for all of us.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.