You Don’t Even Have to Pass the Bar to Practice Law in These 4 States

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jul 28, 7:07AM EDT

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You Don’t Even Have to Pass the Bar to Practice Law in These 4 States — © Thinkstock

The bar exam is a ritual, a rite of passage and a way to find out if individuals have mastered the skills necessary to be a practicing lawyer. However, in four states, people can practice law without having to pass the bar exam.

The COVID-19 crisis is the primary reason the bar exam has been waived. When the Louisiana Supreme Court waived the requirement, Chief Justice Bernette Johnson wrote, “we believe that our action today is not only warranted, but necessary during this public health crisis.” This implies there could soon be a shortage of attorneys, or there already is.

The three other states that do require bar exams are Utah, Washington and Oregon. In each case, the pandemic was part of the reason.

What is lost when someone who wants to become a lawyer does not have to take the bar exam? First, the exam is part of the legal system in dozens of countries, which shows a great deal of the bar’s value in the eyes of the legal systems in places around the world.

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In America, the exam used in almost all states is the one created by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Questions about local legal practices are sometimes added. The process is arduous. The test usually lasts two days. A law degree is almost universally a requirement to be allowed to take the exam.

The bar exam is nothing if not difficult. In some states, barely half of those who take it the first time pass. The number nationwide is 58%. In several states, the percentage is much lower. For example, in Nevada, the number is only 52%, and it is only 51% in Arizona.

The bar exam has been the standard to become a practicing lawyer for decades. In some of the states that have waived it, they have some other set of requirements in place. In Louisiana, a person has to have received their law degrees no earlier than December. Second, they must already have registered for the 2020 bar exam in Louisiana. Third, they cannot have previously sat for a bar exam in any other state. They must also take 25 hours of continuing legal education and a monitoring program. Each of these may constitute a bar, but not a high one.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.