5 alternatives to the bar exam, from legal industry insiders - Business Insider

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Here are 5 alternatives to the current bar exam as reimagined by legal industry insiders, from making it open book to postgraduate apprenticeships

, allowing this year's candidates to practice law without taking the bar exam. The change, however, was limited to just a few jurisdictions, with most of them opting to proceed with an online test.From delayed starts and blurry text, law grads in New York and California faced a slew of technical glitches on the online bar exam

Keep the bar exam, but scrap the multiple-choice portion, narrow the focus of topics covered, and make it open-book And, instead of testing candidates on virtually every topic of the law, Judge Martin said that narrowing the scope of topics tested within certain core foundational areas of law — such as evidence, contracts, and civil procedure — would make the exam a more valid measure of a new lawyer's abilities.

"The current exam is an intensive, two-day, exhausting marathon of a test, where the stakes are too high," said Mnookin. "Critics might argue that there's value in the synthetic, overarching approach the current bar takes. But, on balance, the emotional and financial costs of that probably outweigh the benefits."

Judge Martin added that, while local laws may differ from state to state, it "doesn't make sense" for lawyers to have to redemonstrate their abilities if they wanted to move to another jurisdiction after being admitted to the bar."When you get a license to practice law, it's a general license. It's not like a doctor where you ultimately certify as a heart surgeon or an orthopedic," she said. "The exam cannot test everything.

"I wouldn't let a doctor who hasn't done a few surgeries under the supervision of a practiced surgeon operate on me," said Mary Lu Bilek, dean of the CUNY School of Law. "It's the same with law."Because most law school graduates don't have much substantial prior experience, Anthony Russo, a trial lawyer at The Russo Fim and the Law Center, explained that law firms are often just "putting them on the treadmill to get them up to speed.

The only drawback to this is that it would be very expensive for schools to formalize a lengthier clinical program. Bilek said that clinics typically have a student-faculty ratio of 8 to 1, which translates to double the cost of a seminar, and ten times the cost of a lecture class.

 

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Hope this measures are extended to other professional bodies in America and not only the law bar exams.

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