Arizona has the 49th-lowest number of lawyers per capita in the country, making the state a “legal desert,” according to Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer. The shortage is particularly apparent in rural counties, she said.

With this issue in mind, The Arizona Lawyer Apprentice Program (ALAP) just announced that it will attempt to fill those gaps by giving aspiring lawyers who narrowly missed passing their bar exams a chance to get experience before getting their own law licenses.

Law school graduates who scored within 10 points of passing the bar exam will soon have the opportunity to become apprentice lawyers in rural communities or public law offices for two years before becoming licensed to practice on their own under the program.

“I think we’re starting here to see that this could be a win-win,” Timmer said. “It could help the people that maybe just miss this passing score on their exam and yet want to stay in the state, and encourage people to go to help with the rural areas.”

A lack of attorneys means many defendants in rural communities are left to represent themselves in civil cases, said former Ajo Justice of the Peace John Peck. The prohibitively high cost of traveling to Phoenix or Tucson combined with the cost of hiring a lawyer can be too much to afford for a community that is already “marginalized economically,” Peck said.

The Justice Court in Ajo, about 130 miles west of Tucson in the western reaches of Pima County, can process up to 30 evictions in an hour, Peck said, and most people facing eviction were not represented by lawyers.

“The landlords have lawyers, but the defendants rarely have attorneys. I can count on one hand or less the number of times I’ve seen a defendant have an attorney in an evictions case,” said Peck.

Last fall, Arizona lowered its minimum passing score for the bar exam from 273, what was previously the highest in the country, to 270. The new score is still the nation’s highest, though it’s shared by 18 other states, including Colorado, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

Many University of Arizona law graduates who fall short within a few points often leave for New Mexico or Utah, where the passing score is 260.

Those taking part in ALAP will work for a public law employer, such as a county attorney’s office or public defender’s office, or represent clients under the supervision of an attorney in a rural area for at least 30 hours per week during their two-year commitment. Those who fulfill those terms will be “deemed to have passed” the bar exam, under the court’s administrative order that set up the program.

Timmer said she doesn’t think the ALAP will result in rural communities receiving poor quality or unqualified legal representation because of their lower bar scores. Neighboring jurisdictions consider lawyers with those scores to be competent, she said, and before the bar exam system existed, lawyers became certified only through apprenticeships.

“I don’t look at it as you’re giving anybody somebody less competent,” Timmer said. “You’re giving people that chance to prove their competency in another way.”

You can read more about this program here.

We want to wish good luck to all the students who just sat for the bar exam last week! If you are planning to sit for the next bar exam in February 2025  and want to get a head start (which is always a good idea), just email or call us to discuss our Early Start bar review program.