Date of Award

Spring 2026

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

Academic Program

Criminal Justice BA

Department

Criminal Justice

First Advisor

William Newman

Advisor Department

Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an ongoing discussion of how bar exams may be disproportionately unfair to certain demographic groups as a standard pathway to admission to law practice. Some states have had longstanding alternate pathways to the legal profession that sidestep the bar exam and/or law school, including California, Virginia, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire. In the years following 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, other states have joined these jurisdictions in offering alternative pathways to practice that would replace the law school and/or bar exam requirements for aspiring lawyers. This thesis aims to bridge a gap in the literature on this subject by compiling a list of states that are either offering alternative pathways to a law license or have begun the process of implementing them in the coming years. This thesis first examines the traditional standardized admittance to the bar that a majority of states still follow, before turning to focus on the states that offer alternate pathways. After a discussion of each of these states, comparisons are drawn among them, and they are assigned to a particular category based on whether the program is an apprenticeship, a portfolio project, or a diploma privilege pathway. Each option is then labeled as a substitute for law school, a substitute for the bar examination, or both. This thesis then examines identifiable patterns that exist within the nation for both the standard path to practice and for alternate pathways. In summary, the results underscored the nature of federalism in our republic, revealing wide variations among the states that still embrace the traditional pathway of law school and the bar exam. Specifically, there is great variation among the traditional states in (1) whether the required law degree must come from an ABA-accredited law school; (2) whether the mandated bar exam is one of the national standardized exams, a unique examination created by that particular state, or a combination of both; and (3) the minimum score required on the bar exam. Where non-traditional states are concerned, this study determined that seven states now embrace alternatives to the bar exam, law school, or both. These alternatives fall into three broad categories: (1) apprenticeship programs (California, Utah, Virginia, Washington); (2) portfolio options (Oregon); and (3) diploma privilege (New Hampshire, Wisconsin). As far as patterns among these non-traditional pathways are concerned, there were only two identified geographic patterns relating to adoption of alternative pathways. First, the only real concentration of states with alternative pathways is the Pacific Far West (with California, Oregon, Utah, and Washington all having one or more alternatives). Second, there are alternative pathway deserts in the Deep South and the Midwest. Another notable pattern of a somewhat non-geographic nature is that, of the seven non-traditional states with alternative pathways, five are Democratic-leaning states, one (Wisconsin) is a swing state, and only one (Utah) is a Republican-leaning state. Finally, when trying to ascertain whether there is nationwide momentum to establish alternatives to law licensure, this study compiled the effective dates of the seven states with alternate pathways and found that 42 percent of them have been established since 2022. This study shows that there is a push moving throughout the nation for states to provide alternative pathways to the law profession, though further research could be done in the future once the newer of these pathways have had ample time to produce results.

Comments

Blanket Permission for Future Readers: Uncertain, please contact me with future requests at the following NON-USM email address: williskn0751@gmail.com

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