Students will be able to bypass the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) and become certified through alternative licensing methods. Law school graduates can enroll in apprenticeship programs and experiential pathways to become practice-ready upon completion.

“With these alternative pathways, we recognize that there are multiple ways to ensure a competent, licensed body of new attorneys who are so desperately needed around the state,” Washington Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis stated.

The Court also permitted investigations into lawyers to ensure career-long competency while reducing the timeline to one year for out-of-state attorneys to become eligible in Washington.

The Washington Bar Licensure Task Force initially proposed the changes last month to advance diversity, equity and inclusion and reduce “barriers” to the legal profession.

“The best available data indicates that the bar exam disproportionately and unnecessarily blocks historically marginalized groups from entering the practice of law,” the task force explained. “In addition to the racism and classism written into the test itself, the time and financial costs of the test reinforce historical inequities in our profession.”

Law students will also still be able to become admitted in Washington by taking the UBE, and will need to achieve a 266 UBE score to pass.

You can read more about this development here.

For those of you who still need to pass the bar exam, and are just starting your studying now for the July 2024 Bar Exam, we encourage you to contact us right away (especially if you are re-taking the exam), as the sooner we speak, the sooner we can help you set up a game plan for success this July. Just submit your score report here or email us at [email protected].