Last week New Mexico’s Bar Association announced that starting next spring it will no longer require its would-be lawyers to pass the state bar exam.
As an alternative, it will allow law school graduates to present a portfolio of activities they have engaged in related to the law, one that demonstrates that they have done 675 hours of supervised legal work. They can then become fully fledged lawyers without ever passing the two-day test that had been traditionally required of them.
New Mexico: The vastness, beauty and emptiness within the “State of Enchantment.”
New Mexico is following the lead of six other states that have already adopted this practice: Oregon, Washington, Arizona, South Dakota, Utah and Nevada. New Mexico’s Bar Association argues that this change will make it easier for people living in remote parts of the state to find an attorney to represent them.
But the state is ignoring a far better option that’s still practiced in four states.
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