As new licensure pathways crop up, how are they doing?
New pathways to licensure are having a moment. In the past two years, several jurisdictions have approved methods of licensure that put less emphasis on tests or memorization and more weight on practical skills learned on the job while earning a paycheck. A few others are formally considering similar moves. But for those up and running, how’s it going?
According to conversations with state bar leaders and statistics collected by the ABA Journal, the paths are moving forward successfully, but some tweaks might be made.
“It’s remarkable,” says Neil Fulton, the dean of the University of South Dakota School of Law, whose students have participated in the state’s first cohort of supervised practice path. “It’s been a huge leap of faith for the students on a brand-new program.”
These alternative pathways found support in a July report from the Committee on Legal Education and Admissions Reform—the group established to conduct the study by the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators—which suggested that licensure requirements that de-emphasized the bar exam could simultaneously help new graduates become practice-ready while easing access-to-justice troubles.
Licensure beyond the bar exam is hardly new. Wisconsin has offered diploma privilege since 1870, allowing graduates of its in-state ABA-accredited law schools to join the bar without taking a traditional exam. And the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law’s Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program, consisting of admission via robust simulations, regular assessments and hands-on practical training from volunteer lawyers, judges and court staff over the course of two years, launched in 2005.
But all the recent action has caught the attention of the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which is considering moves that would allow law schools to count the folks who earned their license through an innovative pathway on its bar pass rate.
Currently, Standard 316 requires that 75% of a law school’s graduates in a calendar year who took the bar exam must pass it within two years, which doesn’t account for those who pass a new pathway. But new suggested wording opens up the requirement as “satisfactory completion of an assessment of competency for licensure, such as a bar exam or other assessment recognized in the jurisdiction.”
“It’s remarkable,” says Neil Fulton, the dean of the University of South Dakota School of Law, whose students have participated in the state’s first cohort of supervised practice path. “It’s been a huge leap of faith for the students on a brand-new program.” (Photo by Aaron Packard)
Getting off the ground
Each of the new pathways has its own twist, tailored for its state’s specific situation, including those just about to get off the ground.
Nevada is in the process of signing up candidates for its new three-pronged plan, including tests and supervised practice, which all candidates must follow. To date, 61 applicants have registered for the first administration of the path’s first step—the Foundational Law Exam— scheduled for May, says Richard M. Trachok II, the chair of the State Bar of Nevada’s Board of Bar Examiners.
In Utah, its new alternative pathway to licensure, currently accepting its first applicants, involves 240 hours of supervised practice and a written performance exam. Though the official statewide numbers for the new program are not available, 10 students from the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law signed up to pursue the pathway starting in the summer, says Louisa Heiny, an associate dean for academic affairs at the law school.
Meanwhile, Delaware and Minnesota are drafting their proposals, and Connecticut and New Mexico each announced this month the formation of committees to explore the idea. And while Washington has approved the concept, the program has not yet launched, says Tamara F. Lawson, the dean of the University of Washington School of Law and a member of the state’s Licensure Pathways Implementation Steering Committee.
Up and running
In the past two years, Oregon, Arizona and South Dakota each launched their pathways. Each state initially had more interest by candidates than expected, sources say, and none had trouble finding supervising attorneys.
“We had no idea how many applicants we would get, and it exceeded our hopes,” says Dave Byers, the director of the administrative office of the courts at the Arizona Supreme Court.
And while the alternatives do not offer a guarantee to licensure, the applicants generally are performing well, sources say. Some candidates in South Dakota and Arizona worked on murder trials, with supervisors reporting good performances, according to officials in those states.
Oregon
Of these recently launched programs, Oregon’s is the oldest, admitting applicants beginning in May 2024. Known as the Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination, it allows graduates of ABA-accredited law schools to join the state’s bar by working a 675-hour paid apprenticeship under a qualified, supervising Oregon-licensed lawyer instead of taking the bar exam. Each candidate is required to lead “at least two initial client interviews or client counseling sessions” and “at least two negotiations” plus produce “at least eight pieces of written work product.”
By Jan. 5 of this year, 205 candidates had applied to the state’s Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination since its launch, and 194 were accepted into the program, granting them provisional licensee status, according to the Oregon State Bar’s Board of Bar Examiners’ annual report. Also, 211 attorneys were approved as supervisors, according to the report.
By early 2026, 49 candidates had become fully licensed, taking seven to 18 months to complete the program, with the average finishing in a little less than a year, according to the report.
Deborah Jones Merritt is a professor emerita at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. “This is not a rubber-stamp program,” Merritt says. “Submissions are graded individually. When all the pieces were put together, the bar examiners were quite confident that the candidates licensed through this program were minimally competent—or more.” (Photo by Maddie McGarvey)
Considering that the program was designed to be completed in six to eight months, says Deborah Jones Merritt, a professor emerita at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and a licensure expert, that was a surprise.
“There’s a good explanation for that,” says Merritt, who worked as a volunteer consultant on the Oregon program and is a 2025 ABA Journal Legal Rebel. “These candidates have to juggle job and client demands with submitting materials for this pathway. I remember now how busy my first days of law practice were.”
The longer-than-anticipated completion time might have slowed the pace of applicants, however, now at 8.7 applications per month after nearly three dozen the first month, Merritt says. The report notes that most participants worked in small law firms and focused on criminal or family law.
Between August 2024 and October 2025, 1,333 pieces of work product were assessed, according to the report, and of those, 1,080 met standards, 156 were not qualified and 97 were rejected as inappropriate.
“This is not a rubber-stamp program,” Merritt says. “Submissions are graded individually. When all the pieces were put together, the bar examiners were quite confident that the candidates licensed through this program were minimally competent—or more.”
South Dakota
South Dakota, which has 2.22 lawyers per 1,000 residents, according to the 2024 ABA National Lawyer Population Survey, launched its new pathway to licensure last year that allows up to 10 law students from the University of South Dakota School of Law to perform 500 hours of supervised public service as an alternative to taking the bar exam as their fifth semester of law school.
Students, all from the state’s only law school, must develop portfolios to be reviewed for minimum competence and receive academic credit, as well as produce weekly reflections on their experiences.
For the first cohort, more than 10 applicants applied, and nine were placed, says Fulton, adding that it was more than expected.
“That speaks to student commitment to public service and the willingness to bet on a creative idea and themselves,” Fulton says.
They all successfully completed their portfolios and now must finish their law school classes, have their character and fitness review by the state Board of Bar Examiners, and be approved by the South Dakota Supreme Court, he says, adding that all have jobs confirmed after graduation.
For the second cohort, nine have applied, Fulton says, and “a couple additional public sector offices have expressed interest in hosting.”
While there are guidelines on the types of work that can be submitted in the portfolio, how to handle evaluations remains vague, Fulton says.
“Our competence rules are undeniably ‘squishy’ at this point,” he adds. “Our parameters for competence are relying on our general competence rules.”
Fulton opposes a proposal recently put before the South Dakota House of Representatives to extend the program to existing graduates of the University of South Dakota School of Law, saying the current draft has “no independent criteria of minimum competence and no standards to apply and no requirement of character/fitness review.”
Arizona
In Arizona, the new program does not take the place of the traditional bar exam but exists in addition to it in a second chance-style option.
Arizona, which has 2.14 lawyers per 1,000 residents, according to the 2024 ABA data, launched an apprentice program in September 2024 for law school graduates who come within 10 points of a passing bar exam score of 270, allowing them to be licensed after performing two years of supervised practice in a government position, at a nonprofit or in a rural area.
It’s an attempt to head off new lawyers from heading to neighboring Utah and New Mexico, where pass scores are 10 points lower, Byers says.
After each bar administration, between 20 to 40 candidates qualify for the apprentice program, Byers says.
“We’re getting maybe half of them to sign up,” he adds.
“We leave it to the supervising attorneys to look at the quality of their work,” says Nicole Seder Cantelme, the manager of the Arizona Lawyer Apprentice Program. (Photo courtesy of the Arizona Supreme Court)
It’s an attractive and viable alternative that allows candidates to jump into the workforce and make money instead of waiting to take the bar exam a second time, says Nicole Seder Cantelme, the manager of the Arizona Lawyer Apprentice Program.
Candidates can practice in any rural firm in Arizona, as well as with prosecutors and public defenders.
While the program will help students get placed, the candidates also have found supporting employers on their own, Byers says.
“Some of these folks will have clerked at a firm,” Byers says.
Unlike Oregon and South Dakota, where a graded body of work is the substitute to the bar, in Arizona, these candidates have taken the bar, so specifics of the required work product are not as stringent, Cantelme adds.
“We leave it to the supervising attorneys to look at the quality of their work,” she says.
But occasional progress reports are required, and many supervisors also have weekly check-ins, she adds.
By early March, 14 candidates have completed their first year, “and so far, no issues with those,” Cantelme says.
Ultimately, the candidate’s supervising attorney must sign off that they are demonstrating the qualities, knowledge and skills of a practicing attorney, she says; and a second signature from a judge or another reputable attorney not associated with the firm is required.
Three of the first four applicants were “conditional hires,” Cantelme says. “They were already working for the entity when they took the bar and didn’t pass, and they got to save their job because of the program. It’s very rewarding.”
And in all three states, leaders are sharing their experiences with others around the country.
“I’m meeting with states all the time where they’re asking questions of what we’re doing, how it’s working,” Byers says. “It’s exciting.”
Write a letter to the editor, share a story tip or update, or report an error.
