Latest news with #NationalConferenceofBarExaminers
Reuters
23-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Delaware eyes bar exam alternatives for lawyer licensing
May 23 (Reuters) - Delaware has joined the growing list of states weighing alternative ways to license attorneys. The Delaware Supreme Court on Thursday said it will consider ways to license lawyers without the bar exam, such as providing admissions after two years of specific coursework and assignments or an apprenticeship program. The court cited the success of the alternative licensing program in New Hampshire as a potential model in announcing a task force to look at alternative lawyer licensing. Delaware, despite being the place of incorporation for 62% of companies last year on the Russell 3000 index, which covers nearly all public companies, has just two American Bar Association-accredited law schools and is a relatively small bar exam jurisdiction. Some 185 people were admitted to practice there in 2024 through the bar exam, according to data from the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The court also pointed to recently adopted alternative licensing programs in a handful of the other states including Oregon, Washington and South Dakota as potential models for its program. Proponents say those pathways lower the cost of licensure for law graduates and bypass the racial gaps seen on bar exam pass rates. Details of various states' alternative licensing programs differ, but most involve law graduates working for a designated period under the guidance of a supervising attorney with some external evaluation of their work product. Oregon jump-started the current licensure reform movement in 2023 when it adopted an apprenticeship pathway for law school graduates that does not require taking the bar. Washington followed with a similar approach in March 2024, and in July, Arizona put a plan in motion that lets law grads who fail the bar exam obtain a license through a practical skills program. South Dakota earlier this year adopted a pilot program that allows a limited number of local law graduates to become licensed without the bar exam after working under supervision, provided they commit to public service careers. Like Delaware, high courts in Minnesota and Utah are currently considering licensing alternatives. But no large states have adopted alternatives to the bar exam as yet. California's Supreme Court in October rejected a proposed alternative pathway that would have enabled law school graduates to become licensed after spending four to six months working under the supervision of an experienced attorney and submitting an acceptable portfolio of legal work. The court said the proposal would have implicated an "array of ethical and practical problems.' The Delaware task force's report is due in June 2026. Read more: California alternative lawyer licensing plan rejected by state high court No bar exam required to practice law in Oregon starting next year
Reuters
07-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
After California bar exam mess in February, July's test will cost millions more, official says
May 7 (Reuters) - California's botched February bar exam will cost the State Bar of California almost $6 million more than expected in July, with millions in added expenses in the years to come, officials told state lawmakers on Wednesday. The State Bar's decision to switch to its own bar exam, given both remotely and in person, was expected to save the state bar up to $3.8 million a year. But the problem-plagued February exam and its fallout are now a financial drain on the already cash-strapped state bar. February examinees faced unprecedented technical and logistical problems on the test and the state is returning to its traditional in-person exam in July. The state bar expects to lose about $3 million in revenue because it is waiving the July testing fees for those who failed or withdrew from the February exam, executive director Leah Wilson told the state's Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing on a bill, opens new tab that would mandate a state audit of the February test. Wilson said on Friday that she is stepping down from her state bar post in July, citing the faulty rollout of the new exam. The bar will spend an additional $2 million to secure large testing sites for the July exam after the California Supreme Court ordered that test to be given only in person. And returning to the Multistate Bar Exam — the 200 multiple-choice questions developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners — will cost the bar an additional $620,000 in July, Wilson said. The high court on Friday ordered the bar to return to the MBE for the July test after legal academics and test takers questioned the quality and development process of the multiple-choice questions that appeared on the February exam. Additionally, the state bar must pay test prep company Kaplan Exam Services $6.1 million more before it can exit the five-year contract it entered into last year to provide multiple-choice questions for the bar exam, even if it does not use Kaplan-produced questions, Wilson told the committee. The state bar revealed two weeks ago that due to time constraints, a subset of the February multiple-choice questions were written by a separate contractor using ChatGPT. On Monday, the state bar sued testing platform Meazure Learning for unspecified damages, claiming the company failed to live up to its promises that its systems could handle thousands of bar examinees. Meazure said on Tuesday that the state bar was trying to "shift the blame for its flawed development process for the February exam." The company declined to comment further on Wednesday. State bar officials previously had said there would be added costs following the February bar's failure but had given significantly lower estimates. The hearing also included testimony from four February bar takers, as well as several legal academics who said the development of the exam was rushed and that bar exam experts were excluded from that process. 'How do we make sure we never come back to this place?' said California's Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Tom Umberg, who sponsored the audit bill. 'It's important that we dig deep into this issue.'
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kim Kardashian Gets Closer to Becoming a Lawyer — Report
Kim Kardashian is reportedly getting closer to completing her law career and becoming a lawyer to follow in the footsteps of her late father, Robert Kardashian Sr. She embarked on her journey to become an attorney in 2019 and has since stayed on the path, with updates every once in a while. PEOPLE recently confirmed that Kardashian took the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) in Los Angeles, which might be one of the final steps in achieving her career goal. PEOPLE just shared an update on Kim Kardashian's law career after she reportedly took the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) in LA, getting closer to her dream of becoming a lawyer slowly but steadily. The National Conference of Bar Examiners explains the MPRE as a major examination prior to the bar, which mandatorily requires a passing score for a candidate to be able to practice law in the state of California. This marked one of Kardashian's many career updates since 2019 when she ventured into becoming an attorney. In recent years, the SKIMS founder took part in criminal justice reform, helping inmates get their prison sentences commuted. Very recently, she has vocally advocated for the release of the Menendez Brothers — Erik and Lyle — thrusting the case back into the spotlight amid new claims in their parents' 1989 murders. In addition, Kardashian urged authorities to reconsider the brothers' respective life in prison without the possibility of parole sentences and even visited the convicts in prison last September. Previously, in 2021, Kim Kardashian shared one of her first law career updates after taking the First-Year Law Student's Examination, also called the 'baby bar.' At the time, she posted a tweet on X (formerly Twitter), writing, 'OMFGGGG I PASSED THE BABY BAR EXAM!!!!' The reality star also noted, 'Looking in the mirror, I am really proud of the woman looking back today in the reflection.' She then proceeded to explain her difficult journey to become a lawyer in the thread, announcing she failed the exam thrice in two years. However, Kardashian 'got back up each time and studied harder and tried again' until she finally cleared the exam. The post Kim Kardashian Gets Closer to Becoming a Lawyer — Report appeared first on Reality Tea.
Reuters
28-03-2025
- General
- Reuters
National bar exam score hit record low in February
March 28 (Reuters) - Results for the February bar exam's multiple-choice portion of the national test were the lowest on record and suggest that pass rates for the entire test will be down. The average score on the 200-question Multistate Bar Exam was 130.8, which sank below the previous low of 131.1 in 2023, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The MBE score on last month's test fell short of the February 2024 score of 131.8. This year's MBE average is the lowest since its debut in 1972. Part of this year's decline is due to California's use of its own bar exam for the first time in February and no longer using the MBE, said Bob Schwartz, the National Conference's managing director of psychometrics. California examinees, who number between 3,000 and 4,000 each February, typically have a higher mean MBE score than do examinees elsewhere. When removing California examinees from the 2024 February MBE mean, 2025's year-over-year decline was smaller. The MBE is one of three bar exam sections, along with essays and a performance test. February's score decline is also partially due to the declining performance of repeat test takers, Schwartz said. The bar exam is given twice a year in February and July, with the February administration drawing a higher proportion of takers who have already failed the test once, which generally results in lower overall pass rates than July, since repeat test takers are more likely to fail the exam. This February, 71% of test takers were repeaters. Due to the widespread adoption of the Uniform Bar Exam — which enables examinees to transfer scores between jurisdictions without having to retake the bar — fewer of today's repeat test takers have already taken the bar exam and passed elsewhere, the National Conference said. Today's repeaters are more likely to have failed the exam at least once, pulling down the national average MBE score for February. California is not due to release results from its February bar exam until May 2. The state's hybrid remote and in-person exam was marred by widespread technical and logistical problems.
