Earlier this 12 months, regulation college students from throughout the nation graduated amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Our finals have been on-line and the commencement ceremonies have been something however ceremonial. We have been pressured to neglect custom and simply make do. What did not change was the final fragment of a authorized career tainted with inequality and racism: the bar examination.
In the US, the bar examination has not all the time been the gateway to the authorized career that it’s at present. Apprenticeships and oral examinations have been utilized by states to manage new attorneys. Solely within the final century did a formally administered examination change into the norm.
The push for an examination got here on account of a rising variety of folks of shade and immigrants eager to follow regulation. Members of the career did the whole lot they may to stop these aspiring attorneys from becoming a member of the ranks of the all-white authorized career. Theron Robust, a former New York Court docket of Appeals choose, warned of an “inflow of foreigners” eager to change into attorneys. The American Bar Affiliation itself was as soon as a white male fraternity that voted to confess solely “worthy members” in an effort, as its membership chairman stated, to protect “the pure Anglo-Saxon race.”
The racial divide at regulation faculties was widened to restrict the variety of non-white college students who might attend. Even when these college students have been capable of full their regulation levels, limitations to the examination remained. The bar examination is only a piece of the authorized career’s racist historical past, however it’s nonetheless a remnant of that horrible previous that exists at present.
Whereas the bar examination is now not explicitly racially discriminatory, it de facto creates a racist system. To arrange for the examination, candidates spend 1000’s of {dollars} on bar prep programs that take months of their time. Many can’t afford these luxuries, however should endure them to be able to enter the career. There is no such thing as a doubt that these blatant concerns particularly impression non-white candidates.
Individuals of shade have had centuries of discriminatory and racist insurance policies focused at them, creating fashionable financial disparities. This interprets right into a minuscule variety of non-white college students attending regulation college and holding the bar. In California, 68 % of all attorneys are white, however white residents make up solely 41 % of California’s inhabitants. In the meantime, Latinos make up 7 % of all attorneys in California, however 35 % of the state’s inhabitants. And attorneys in California are solely 4 % black and 13 % Asian, regardless of these teams making up a bigger share of the inhabitants.
The discriminatory impression of the bar examination must be greater than enough to persuade states {that a} new licensing regime is important. Nonetheless, the examination itself doesn’t represent a purposeful utility to the follow of regulation. No lawyer practices all 18 topics, a few of which aren’t even coated by California regulation. Its solely use is as a relic of a bygone period, meant to additional guard entry to the already closely guarded authorized career.
Eliminating the bar examination is the required first step in lawyer licensure reform. College students have accomplished three years of authorized training, handed a state-required ethics check, and handed an intensive state-required background verify. After commencement, these college students can follow regulation whereas awaiting different necessities, resembling short-term supervision by an lawyer. This reform measure is championed by proponents of the nationwide credential privilege motion.
In July, the California Supreme Court docket, which determines how California lawyer candidates are licensed, heard from candidates for almost three hours about the way it ought to rethink the examination.
Despite the fact that the overwhelming majority supported the diploma privilege, the court docket ignored us. It modified the date of the examination for a second time, moved the check on-line and lowered the passing rating – however twice retroactively denied entry to candidates who beforehand scored above the brand new passing rating. The judges didn’t settle for any suggestion provided to them.
The motion for credentialing privileges and licensing reform just isn’t restricted to these of us who’ve simply taken the examination. A reformed system is supported by regulation college students, graduates, professors, deans, and even state legislators. Every time the bar examination passes, increasingly more prepared attorneys are unable to follow. The necessity for reform just isn’t solely broadly supported, but additionally urgently pressing.
Legal professionals are referred to as upon to be zealous advocates within the pursuit of justice, however many are denied that chance as a result of traditionally racist limitations that also exist at present. For the sake of equality and equity within the authorized system, a considerably reformed construction for licensing California attorneys is important. Making a extra simply authorized career begins with liberating our state from these irrational tribulations. Let my group of candidates lastly be the final to bear this glorified hazing ritual and abolish the bar examination as soon as and for all.
you as JD is a graduate of California Western College of Legislation and a Subsequent Era Chief of the American Structure Society. He lives in Rancho San Diego.