New Mexico is latest state to offer students an alternative to bar exam
They’re trying to get lawyers past the bar.New Mexico is the newest state in the country to offer an alternative to the traditional bar exam.New Mexico has become the latest state to give law school graduates an alternative to the traditional bar exam, allowing them to earn a license by completing 675 hours of supervised legal work under an attorney or approved host organization.Law school grads will now be able to get their license after finishing 675 hours of supervised legal work under an attorney or host organization, the state’s supreme court announced Tuesday.Graduates can still take the two-day bar exam, but supporters of the new program say hands-on legal work could be a better test of whether someone is actually prepared to practice law — while helping fill a shortage of attorneys in rural parts of the state.New Mexico’s court explained that two-thirds of its counties have less than one attorney per every 1,000 residents, making them a region the American Bar Association refers to as a “legal desert.”“This new option for admission to the practice of law also has the potential to increase the number of attorneys in New Mexico to address unmet legal needs, particularly in rural areas where it is difficult to find a lawyer,” New Mexico Chief Justice Julie Vargas said in a statement.New Mexico now joins six other states — Oregon, Washington, Arizona, South Dakota, Utah and Nevada — in offering an alternative to the 12-hour test, which is split across two days.The first bar exam was given in 1783 in Delaware Colony, and the ABA was founded close to a century later, in 1878.Oregon was the first state to reform the bar, when in 2023, an apprenticeship alternative was approved.Its Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination began the following year, allowing students to complete 675 hours of paid or unpaid legal work under an attorney.New Mexico’s bar alternative is scheduled to be implemented next year, where students will be asked to s...