When the Oregon State Board of Bar Examiners opened up applications for its Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination in May, some members of its Licensure Pathway Development Committee were nervous.

They knew the success of the program allowing ABA-accredited law school graduates to work closely with a supervising attorney instead of taking the bar exam hinged on the buy-in from the state’s potential employers. If no licensed lawyers signed up for the program, which consisted of a 675-hour paid apprenticeship under a qualified supervising state-licensed lawyer, there would be no places for the candidates to work and the program would fall apart.

Instead, within a month, 62 attorneys from 57 employers had applied to serve as supervisors. By early October, those numbers had grown to 101 attorneys from 87 employers ranging from Nike to Public Defender Services of Lane County to the Oregon Judicial Department.

“It’s more popular than we could even have imagined,” says Joanna Perini-Abbott, co-chair of the committee and a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School. Taking the traditional bar exam produced by the National Conference of Bar Examiners remains an option to join the bar.

Other states are considering Oregon-style plans. In March, the Washington Supreme Court approved, in concept, additional pathways to the bar involving supervised practice. Nevada’s new three-pronged licensure plan includes supervised practice. And members of Oregon’s committee have consulted their counterparts in Ohio, Minnesota and Utah, says Addie Tobin Smith, the other committee co-chair and a legal consultant in Portland.

Brian Gallini, a former dean of Willamette University School of Law and a former committee member, believes the portfolio exam can do to the traditional bar exam what “the iPhone did to the Blackberry.

“Oh, wait—we can help people get licensed while addressing legal deserts and racial disparities and a host of other issues? Sign me up,” he says.

The committee was made up of 14 members, including deans of the state’s three law schools, a law student, practicing attorneys, the CEO of the Oregon State Bar, and representatives of the Oregon State Bar Board of Bar Examiners, the Oregon State Bar Board of Governors and the Oregon bench. A separate working group representing various stakeholders also offered input, Smith says.

The state’s move comes as jurisdictions consider if and when they will use the NextGen Bar Exam in place of the NCBE’s Uniform Bar Exam, which sunsets in 2028.

But the glimmer of inspiration dates back to just before the pandemic, Perini-Abbott says, as data emerged showing racial disparities in bar exam performance and other research questioned whether the bar exam was a good measure of minimum competence. Then when COVID-19 hit, Oregon scrapped the rigid rules surrounding the UBE and offered an option to take the bar exam remotely and grant diploma privilege to 2020 graduates.

In May, the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar approved a policy shift allowing states to use methods of licensure beyond the traditional bar exam. The May 2024 graduating class is the first to be offered the new pathway. By October, 49 applicants had received their provisional licenses to practice law and 27 were in process, according to the committee.

“It is not a rubber stamp,” says Smith, who has graded some of the provisional attorneys’ portfolio work, some of which did not meet standards. “It’s still an exam.”

Legal Rebels Class of 2025

Rodrigo Camarena

Roy Ferguson

Joan Howarth and Deborah Jones Merritt

Oregon Board of Bar Examiners

Swapna Reddy

Jacqueline Schafer

Noella Sudbury

In This Podcast:

For the last three decades, complaints about the bar exam were common but change was minimal. But Joan Howarth and Deborah Jones Merritt wanted to do more than grumble.

While most lawyers take the bar exam and then never want to think about it again, Merritt, 69, and Howarth, 74, have never forgotten. They have been diligently committed to keeping the conversation going about changes to the traditional exam, which launched 53 years ago.

Each marched forward, conducting research over 25 years that investigated why licensing processes need to change and what remedies would halt the inequities stemming from the current exam process.

Now, with the Uniform Bar Exam due to sunset in 2028, these two retired academics are the go-to advisers for jurisdictions evaluating wide-ranging options for licensure as they bring the duo’s ideas on reform closer to reality.

“They are two incredible thought leaders in the licensure space,” says Brian Gallini, dean of Quinnipiac University School of Law, who worked with both women on the Oregon State Bar’s reform efforts. “We should have been listening to them much earlier.”

Merritt, professor emerita at Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, was co-principal investigator of the landmark 2020 report Building a Better Bar. She left teaching a year later to devote her retirement years to bar reform and has been hands-on in reform efforts around the country, including those in Oregon, Nevada and California. In addition, she has spoken to groups in New York, Ohio, Indiana, Utah, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas and Massachusetts about bar reform.

Howarth, who was dean at Michigan State University College of Law from 2008-2016 and, as of July 1, professor emerita at University of Nevada Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law, wrote the 2022 book Shaping the Bar: The Future of Attorney Licensing. Along with advising other states’ efforts, Howarth chairs Nevada’s Foundational Subject Requirement and Performance Test Implementation Task Force and is a member of the Commission to Study the Administration of the Bar Examination and Licensing of Attorneys. The commission developed the Nevada Plan, a unique three-stage licensing process mimicking that of medical licensure.

The pair, who met in 2016, also is involved with the National Center for State Courts’ look at practical suggestions for licensure reform: They both sit on its Committee on Legal Education and Admissions Reform’s bar admissions working group.

“The two of them are quite the dynamic duo,” says Susan Smith Bakhshian, the director of bar programs and a clinical professor of law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, who worked with both women on California’s failed attempt to create a portfolio bar exam. “They work together, not in a way of two people who have exactly the same skills, but they complement each other.”

Bar none

Both women’s focus on the bar exam bloomed in the 1990s.

For Merritt, the obsession started after a colleague asked her to analyze statistics related to states raising their passing scores.

“The first thing that actually jumped out was that states were deciding to raise the score just as significant numbers of women and people of color were coming into the profession,” she says. “That naturally concerned and outraged me.”

Meanwhile, Howarth was then a professor at Golden Gate University School of Law, “very much a public-interest, nonfancy law school for working adults,” she says. She saw firsthand how the current system favors students with the financial resources to afford expensive bar prep and unpaid time off to memorize myriad legal standards, she says.

As educators, each saw good students who performed well in classrooms, moot courts and legal clinics but couldn’t pass the bar. Many times, it stemmed from racial and other inequity issues, they say. In 2023, white bar-takers in the U.S. had a first-time pass rate of 84%; Asians, 74%; Hispanics, 71%; and Blacks, 58%, according to the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.

And each encountered many law students who were not practice-ready at graduation, as law school curricula and the pencil-and-paper bar exam emphasized memorization over skills.

“I had been a very pointy-headed, front-of-the-classroom professor,” Merritt says, “but coming into the clinic, I just thought, ‘Wow, there’s all these ways in which we’re not preparing our students if they don’t take a clinic and really serve clients.’”

When the pandemic initially hit, academic peers fretted as jurisdictions were forced to rethink the necessity of in-person bar exams. But “Joan said, ‘You know, there’s an opportunity here for us to speak up about the bar exam,’” Merritt adds.

And they did just that. In March 2020, they worked with a group of other academics to publish “The Bar Exam and the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Need for Immediate Action” in the St. Louis University School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series.

“My only complaint is, I can’t keep up with Debby in terms of her productivity,” Howarth says. “She’s supersmart and superbright and has a motor to keep working that is really remarkable. We are very happy to keep learning from each other.”

Howarth’s “values are not just ones that I admire and share, but she’s so committed to them,” Merritt adds. “I strive to be as committed.”

Still, they don’t always agree on tactics. It took Howarth a while to convince Merritt to work on Nevada’s new multiple-choice exam.

“I never in my life thought that I would spend part of my retirement working on a multiple-choice test,” Merritt says. “But in Nevada’s plan, it works.”

Howarth anticipates that 10 years from now, the licensing process will vary from state to state, and most new lawyers will have had some kind of supervised practice before becoming licensed.

“People will get that that’s fundamentally necessary for client protection,” she adds. “And we will have multiple pathways for licensure that are less expensive and that will help us to have a more inclusive and more effective profession.”

Merritt finishes Howarth’s thought: “And one that serves clients more effectively, and I hope, also gains more recognition among states—that if you’ve been licensed by one state, then you’re a competent lawyer, and you can simply come and practice in our state.”

These days, they are excited to be change-makers watching their own ideas come to fruition, with 13 jurisdictions making or considering moves to change licensure, according to the website devoted to bar exam changes that Merritt maintains.

“Sometimes, we still have trouble believing it is happening,” Merritt says. “Sometimes, we look back and say, ‘Remember, even as recently as 2016? Did we think any of this was possible?’”

Legal Rebels Class of 2025

Rodrigo Camarena

Roy Ferguson

Joan Howarth and Deborah Jones Merritt

Oregon State Board of Bar Examiners

Swapna Reddy

Jacqueline Schafer

Noella Sudbury

In This Podcast:

When the Oregon State Board of Bar Examiners opened up applications for its Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination in May, some members of its Licensure Pathway Development Committee were nervous.

They knew the success of the program allowing ABA-accredited law school graduates to work closely with a supervising attorney instead of taking the bar exam hinged on the buy-in from the state’s potential employers. If no licensed lawyers signed up for the program, which consisted of a 675-hour paid apprenticeship under a qualified supervising state-licensed lawyer, there would be no places for the candidates to work and the program would fall apart.

Instead, within a month, 62 attorneys from 57 employers had applied to serve as supervisors. By early October, those numbers had grown to 101 attorneys from 87 employers ranging from Nike to Public Defender Services of Lane County to the Oregon Judicial Department.

“It’s more popular than we could even have imagined,” says Joanna Perini-Abbott, co-chair of the committee and a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School. Taking the traditional bar exam produced by the National Conference of Bar Examiners remains an option to join the bar.

Other states are considering Oregon-style plans. In March, the Washington Supreme Court approved, in concept, additional pathways to the bar involving supervised practice. Nevada’s new three-pronged licensure plan includes supervised practice. And members of Oregon’s committee have consulted their counterparts in Ohio, Minnesota and Utah, says Addie Tobin Smith, the other committee co-chair and a legal consultant in Portland.

Brian Gallini, a former dean of Willamette University School of Law and a former committee member, believes the portfolio exam can do to the traditional bar exam what “the iPhone did to the Blackberry.

“Oh, wait—we can help people get licensed while addressing legal deserts and racial disparities and a host of other issues? Sign me up,” he says.

The committee was made up of 14 members, including deans of the state’s three law schools, a law student, practicing attorneys, the CEO of the Oregon State Bar, and representatives of the Oregon State Bar Board of Bar Examiners, the Oregon State Bar Board of Governors and the Oregon bench. A separate working group representing various stakeholders also offered input, Smith says.

The state’s move comes as jurisdictions consider if and when they will use the NextGen Bar Exam in place of the NCBE’s Uniform Bar Exam, which sunsets in 2028.

But the glimmer of inspiration dates back to just before the pandemic, Perini-Abbott says, as data emerged showing racial disparities in bar exam performance and other research questioned whether the bar exam was a good measure of minimum competence. Then when COVID-19 hit, Oregon scrapped the rigid rules surrounding the UBE and offered an option to take the bar exam remotely and grant diploma privilege to 2020 graduates.

In May, the council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar approved a policy shift allowing states to use methods of licensure beyond the traditional bar exam. The May 2024 graduating class is the first to be offered the new pathway. By October, 49 applicants had received their provisional licenses to practice law and 27 were in process, according to the committee.

“It is not a rubber stamp,” says Smith, who has graded some of the provisional attorneys’ portfolio work, some of which did not meet standards. “It’s still an exam.”

Legal Rebels Class of 2025

Rodrigo Camarena

Roy Ferguson

Joan Howarth and Deborah Jones Merritt

Oregon Board of Bar Examiners

Swapna Reddy

Jacqueline Schafer

Noella Sudbury

In This Podcast:

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3. Our favorite Instagram posts from 2024

Year in Review

Our favorite Instagram posts from 2024

By Jackson A. Thomas

December 23, 2024, 10:34 am CST

It’s been another riveting year in the legal industry and for our coverage at the ABA Journal. And like clockwork, 2025 will be here before we know it.

Over the last year, we’ve featured on our Instagram page myriad photos and videos.

Check out some of our favorite Instagram posts from 2024 below, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

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1. Swift justice

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2. Checkmate for BigLaw associate

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3. Lawyer writes children’s book

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4. California teen passes bar exam

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5. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on Broadway

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6. Smiles all around

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7. Spotlight on ABA’s president-elect

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8. 2024 end-of-year office holiday party

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9. Horse-loving lawyer runs Colorado ranch

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3. Our top LinkedIn posts of 2024

Year in Review

Our top LinkedIn posts of 2024

By Jackson A. Thomas

December 23, 2024, 10:54 am CST

As we close the door on 2024 and step into 2025, we’re giving readers a behind-the-scenes look at the ABA Journal’s LinkedIn page and social media analytics.

There are many ways to gauge engagement on LinkedIn. But this year, we’ve chosen to show you the Journal’s LinkedIn social media posts that received the most clicks, the most comments and the most reactions.

Contribute to the discussion by following the Journal’s LinkedIn page here.

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Most clicks

1. May 14 – An associate clinical professor at the Mississippi College School of Law died over the weekend in a fatal shooting that also claimed the lives of her mother and sister.

2. April 10 – Alex Spiro, a partner with Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, wrongly appeared at a Texas deposition without pro hac vice permission and then proceeded to act in a “ridiculously unprofessional” manner, according to a sanctions motion.

3. May 9 – A woman who served six months in prison at Rikers Island in New York as a teenager passed the bar exam on the first try, a moment captured in a viral video posted to TikTok.

4. Aug. 24 – Vice President Kamala Harris would be the second president with a law degree from a school outside the top 14 if she is elected president.

5. May 20 – BigLaw firm will pay up to $20M to top partners, an amount needed “to be at the big table.”

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Most comments

1. May 7 – Thirteen federal judges, all of them appointees of former President Donald Trump, have announced that they won’t hire clerks who graduate from Columbia University or Columbia Law School.

2. Aug. 24 – Vice President Kamala Harris would be the second president with a law degree from a school outside the top 14 if she is elected president.

3. May 14 – An associate clinical professor at the Mississippi College School of Law died over the weekend in a fatal shooting that also claimed the lives of her mother and sister.

4. Feb. 27 – Is SCOTUS making it harder to teach constitutional law? Profs “depleted” and taken aback by “velocity” of change.

5. Jan. 16 – A murder defendant whose lawyer slept during parts of the trial was denied his right to counsel under the state constitution, entitling him to a new trial, the top court in Massachusetts has ruled.

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Most reactions

1. May 9 – A woman who served six months in prison at Rikers Island in New York as a teenager passed the bar exam on the first try, a moment captured in a viral video posted to TikTok.

2. Jan. 10 – Women have a slight majority in the ranks of associates at U.S. law firms, the National Association for Law Placement says in its latest diversity report.

3. May 14 – An associate clinical professor at the Mississippi College School of Law died over the weekend in a fatal shooting that also claimed the lives of her mother and sister.

4. Jan. 14 – Women have a slight majority in the ranks of associates at U.S. law firms, the National Association for Law Placement says in its latest diversity report.

5. Jan. 17 – Opposing counsel may want to watch out for Rochelle Ballantyne, a first-year litigation associate at Sidley Austin and a longtime chess champ with a fierce competitive spirit.

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3. Top news stories of 2024

Year in Review

Top news stories of 2024

By Lee Rawles

December 24, 2024, 8:00 am CST

Every year, we like to give our readers a peek behind our analytics and share which of our stories got the most traffic. For 2024, we’re sharing the top 10 news stories written for ABAJournal.com and the top five articles that also appeared in our magazine. The Second Amendment, law school rankings and retirement for lawyers all drew attention this year.

Top 10 articles on ABAJournal.com

1. States can’t ban guns in banks, hospitals and churches, but property owners can, 9th Circuit says

A federal appeals court has refused to allow two states to ban guns in some locations but limited the impact of its decision when it ruled that property owners can reject firearms.

2. New bar passage stats show several law schools below ABA cutoff

Western Michigan University’s Thomas M. Cooley Law School had the lowest two-year bar passage rate for 2021 graduates among ABA-accredited law schools, according to data released by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.

3. Shake-up in US News’ 2024 law school rankings

The 2024 U.S. News & World Report Best Law Schools rankings is riddled with ties, including three ties in the top tier, and a few unusual jumps.

4. Judge resigns amid Jan. 6 rally probe; ‘I would do it over again’

A New York village and town court judge has agreed to resign amid an investigation into his attendance at a Jan. 6, 2021, rally in Washington, D.C.

5. Black retired judge who flew first class says flight attendant ordered her to use coach restroom

A Black retired judge from Chicago said she was flying first class when an American Airlines flight attendant accused her of slamming the first-class restroom door and later directed her to use the facilities in the back of the plane.

6. 4th Circuit upholds $1M sanction for law firm that tried to ‘sabotage’ federal court’s authority

A federal judge had inherent power to impose a $1.05 million sanction against a national law firm for asking state courts to order an end to U.S. district court litigation, a federal appeals court has ruled.

7. Retiring Reluctantly: As lawyers age, many struggle with exit strategies

For years, law firms across the country have been grappling with what to do with the baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, as they reach and surpass the typical retirement age of 65. The problem, law firm consultants say, is that lawyers often don’t want to leave.

8. Judge assigned to Trump’s criminal case in Georgia once worked for DA

The state court judge appointed to preside in the Georgia racketeering case against former President Donald Trump once worked for Fani T. Willis, the current Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney who obtained the indictment.

9. Duane Morris partner ousted after wife found dead in stairwell and her parents allege domestic violence (Update)

A judge in Cook County, Illinois, has granted a temporary restraining order that prevents a now-ousted partner at Duane Morris from retrieving the remains of his wife after her body was found in a stairwell in his South Loop residential building.

10. Teen who enrolled in law school at age 13 becomes youngest person to pass California bar exam

A 17-year-old girl has beaten her brother’s record to become the youngest person to pass the California bar exam.

Top five ABA Journal magazine articles

1. 25 Books for Lawyers

The ABA Journal asked attorneys to share reads they found inspiring, insightful and useful in the practice of law. Here are 25 of their suggestions.

2. These Public Service Loan Forgiveness applicants have seen their student debt erased

Many public service attorneys had an overwhelming feeling that massive student loan debt would travel through life with them. But many of those attorneys got relief in the past year, thanks to recent changes to the federal government’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

3. Resting Your Cases: Thinking about retirement? Lawyers give advice about money, goals and happiness

Lawyers can have meaningful and fulfilling lives after retirement. However, there are some important steps to take long before leaving a full-time legal career.

4. Lawyers as Explainers: Remember, you are writing for intelligent people

“As professional workers with words, lawyers above all must be good explainers,” writes Bryan Garner. “The basic approach of expert explainers is to say what would need to be said clearly, simply and pleasantly to a small mixed audience of intelligent people. You think all this is obvious? It’s not. The qualities we’re discussing here aren’t commonplace. They’re rare.”

5. Guard against poor legal research with these 3 writing practices

“Not long ago, the partners at a law firm told me of an embarrassingly disastrous trial,” writes Bryan Garner. “They wanted to know whether I knew of ways to prevent this type of problem. The answer is a qualified yes: While there are no panaceas, certain protocols can minimize the risks of suboptimal research. Here are the three crucial points.”

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3. Bar admission denied for applicant who won’t…

Constitutional Law

Bar admission denied for applicant who won’t take constitutional oath

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 9, 2024, 2:22 pm CST

A bar applicant who won’t take an oath to support the U.S. Constitution and the New York Constitution has failed to demonstrate that she has the character and fitness to become an attorney, according to a New York appeals court.

The applicant was a 30-year-old Nevada resident who graduated from law school in 2018 and passed the New York bar exam in July 2022, according to the memorandum and order decided and entered Dec. 5 by the Appellate Division’s Third Judicial Department of the New York Supreme Court. She was not identified in the per curiam order.

The woman “has made plain that she cannot unequivocally take and subscribe to an oath or affirmation that she will support” the state and federal constitutions, the appeals court said.

A member of the appeals court’s character and fitness committee had referred the matter for a formal hearing after an interview and an investigation. The applicant waived her right to a hearing.

The applicant has the burden of demonstrating that she has the character and fitness for admission, and she has not met the burden, the appeals court said.

Hat tip to the Legal Profession Blog, which noted the order.

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3. Teen who enrolled in law school at age 13…

Bar Exam

Teen who enrolled in law school at age 13 becomes youngest person to pass California bar exam

By Debra Cassens Weiss

November 19, 2024, 8:51 am CST

A 17-year-old girl has beaten her brother’s record to become the youngest person to pass the California bar exam.

Sophia Park passed the California bar Nov. 8 when she was 17 years and 8 months old, report YourCentralValley.com, the Sun-Gazette, the Visalia Times Delta, KMPH, ABC News and a Nov. 13 press release.

Park’s brother Peter Park was 17 years and 11 months old when he became the youngest person to pass the California bar in November 2023. Park will join her brother working for the Tulare County district attorney’s office in California.

“I don’t think it was extremely difficult,” Park said of the bar exam in an interview, according to YourCentralValley.com. “But I do think there was difficulty in how much you had to put into your brain in a limited period of time.”

Park graduated from the Northwestern California University School of Law in 2024. The school offers online instruction and is accredited by the State Bar of California, according to its website.

Park first considered a legal career after a sixth grade career survey said she should consider the profession.

Park started law school at age 13 in 2020 while she was in junior high school. During her freshman year of high school, she concluded that her work there was taking up a lot of her time, so she took and passed the California High School Proficiency Exam.

Park worked as a summer intern at the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office at age 16 and has been working as a law clerk in the Tulare County district attorney’s office. She will begin work as a prosecutor after she is sworn in as a licensed attorney in March 2025 upon turning 18, according to the press release.

“I wanted to work for the prosecution,” Park told the Sun-Gazette, “because I like the idea that I get to represent the people of the state of California, keep our community safe and make sure that justice is served.”

Park’s record may be surpassed by her younger sister, who is 14 years old and in her second year of law school, Park told KMPH. Her younger brother, who is 8 years old, also wants to be a lawyer; he dressed as one for Halloween.

Leah Wilson, the State Bar of California’s executive director, told ABC News that passing the bar is a “remarkable achievement” that follows Peter Park’s similar success last year.

“Passing the state bar exam at any age is a tremendous accomplishment, and to do so at 17 is truly exceptional,” Wilson said.

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3. Utah considers allowing law grads to choose…

Bar Exam

Utah considers allowing law grads to choose apprenticeship rather than bar exam

By Debra Cassens Weiss

November 7, 2024, 1:21 pm CST

The Utah Supreme Court is seeking comment on a proposal to allow law grads to become lawyers without taking the bar exam.

The plan released Monday gives law graduates two options to obtain a law license: They can pass the bar exam, or they can complete “alternate path” requirements. Both options also require a passing score on the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam.

Those who choose the alternate path must have graduated from an ABA-accredited law school within the last five years, must have successfully completed several listed law school courses, and must complete 240 “supervised practice hours” under a supervising attorney.

The Utah Supreme Court is inviting comments through Dec. 19, Reuters reports. The state supreme court acted in response to a 2023 proposal of its Bar Admissions Working Group.

One of the working group members is Catherine Bramble, a professor at Brigham Young University’s law school. She told Reuters that she hopes that the alternate path program “could be implemented as soon as next summer.”

Other states with apprenticeship pathways are Oregon, Washington and Arizona, according to Reuters.

See also:

Examining the Bar: Should law grads need to pass the bar to practice? Some say there is a better way

Bar exam does little to ensure attorney competence, say lawyers in diploma privilege state

Judicial task force will take deep look at legal ed, bar admissions

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3. Overturning 45-year precedent, New Jersey…

Ethics

Overturning 45-year precedent, New Jersey gives disbarred lawyers second chance

By Debra Cassens Weiss

October 16, 2024, 11:55 am CDT

Former New Jersey lawyers who are disbarred will in most cases be allowed to apply for reinstatement after five years, the New Jersey Supreme Court has decided.

The New Jersey Supreme Court’s Oct. 15 order and determination reject the approach that it adopted in a 1979 case that imposed automatic and permanent disbarment for knowing misappropriation of funds. Now, lawyers disbarred for misappropriation, as well as lawyers disbarred for other reasons, can apply for readmission in five years as long as several conditions are met.

Law360 and Law.com are among the publications with coverage.

New Jersey now joins 41 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing disbarred attorneys to seek readmission. Most of those jurisdictions allow an application for reinstatement after five years.

But not every lawyer can apply for reinstatement in New Jersey. The state supreme court retained the authority to impose permanent disbarment in future egregious cases and to block successive applications for reinstatement for particular attorneys, according to an Oct. 15 press release on the new admission process.

The path back to a law license won’t be easy. Lawyers seeking readmission must meet several conditions, including requirements that they prove fitness to practice law, that they take and pass the New Jersey bar exam and the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, that they complete specified continuing legal education courses, and that they file a statement of restitution paid to former clients and a client protection fund.

The New Jersey Supreme Court acted on a recommendation of the so-called Wade Committee, also known as the state supreme court’s Special Committee on the Duration of Disbarment for Knowing Misappropriation. It is named for lawyer Dionne Larrel Wade, who was disbarred after a random audit showed that she sometimes took money from her client trust account to pay bills. She always repaid the money, however, and she had no prior discipline.

Wade had represented underserved clients and was honored for her pro bono work.

“Everything I’ve done in my life was to become an attorney and to help people,” Wade told the ABA Journal in a December 2022 article.

The New Jersey Supreme Court’s opinion disbarring Wade convened the special committee to evaluate whether disbarment should always be permanent. Twenty-one of the committee’s 28 members recommended a path to readmission.

New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner commented on the readmission decision in the press release.

“Going forward, New Jersey’s legal system will have a robust and fair review process that not only protects the public but also affords disbarred attorneys, who have taken appropriate steps, a chance to practice law again after five years,” Rabner said.