HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

In the United States, the diploma privilege is a method for lawyers to be
admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...
(i.e. authorized to practice law) without taking a
bar examination A bar examination is an examination administered by the bar association of a jurisdiction that a lawyer must pass in order to be admitted to the bar of that jurisdiction. Australia Administering bar exams is the responsibility of the bar associ ...
. Wisconsin is the only jurisdiction that currently allows diploma privilege as an alternative to the bar examination. In 25 states, attorneys who were initially admitted to practice by another state's diploma privilege are eligible for admission to the state bar on motion of the admission committee.


History

Diploma privilege arose as a method for admission to the bar along with the rise of
law schools in the United States A law school in the United States is an educational institution where students obtain a professional education in law after first obtaining an undergraduate degree. Law schools in the U.S. confer the degree of Juris Doctor (J.D.), which is a ...
. Prior to the 1870s, most aspiring lawyers trained through apprenticeships under a lawyer or a judge, a practice called "
reading law Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under th ...
". In the 1870s, law schools began to emerge across the country as an alternative form of
legal education Legal education is the education of individuals in the principles, practices, and theory of law. It may be undertaken for several reasons, including to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for admission to legal practice in a particular ...
. To incentivize aspiring lawyers to attend law schools, many states offered "diploma privilege" to graduates of law schools, wherein they would receive automatic admission to the bar. This practice reached its peak between 1879 and 1917. The practice of diploma privilege declined in favor of formal, written bar examinations from the late 1910s onward. The privilege was abolished in
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
in 1917. In 1921, the
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
formally expressed opposition to diploma privilege. By 1948, only 9 states maintained diploma privilege. The most recent states to abolish diploma privilege and require law school graduates to sit for a bar examination were
Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
in 1981,
Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...
and
South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large po ...
in 1983, and
West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
in 1988. As of 2020, Wisconsin is the only state that allows graduates of in-state law schools to gain admission to the bar through diploma privilege rather than a bar examination. New Hampshire does not have diploma privilege, but its only law school has an alternative licensing program called the Daniel Webster Honors Program that allows a limited number of students who have completed certain curricula and a separate exam to bypass the regular bar exam. Iowa considered reinstating diploma privilege in 2014.


Diploma privilege in Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, J.D. graduates of the two
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
-accredited law schools in the state,
Marquette University Law School Marquette University Law School is the professional graduate law school of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is one of two law schools in Wisconsin and the only private law school in the state. Founded in 1892 as the Milwaukee Law ...
and the
University of Wisconsin Law School The University of Wisconsin Law School is the professional graduate law school of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Located in Madison, Wisconsin, the school was founded in 1868. The University of Wisconsin Law School is guided by a "law in ...
, may seek admission to the State Bar of Wisconsin without having to sit for a bar examination. LLM and SJD graduates of these law schools are not eligible for diploma privilege. The diploma privilege in Wisconsin dates to 1870, when it was passed by the
Wisconsin State Legislature The Wisconsin Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The Legislature is a bicameral body composed of the upper house, Wisconsin State Senate, and the lower Wisconsin State Assembly, both of which have had Republ ...
in the same legislation that established the
University of Wisconsin Law School The University of Wisconsin Law School is the professional graduate law school of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Located in Madison, Wisconsin, the school was founded in 1868. The University of Wisconsin Law School is guided by a "law in ...
. At that time a law department was established in the State University and a course of study under able instructors was prescribed for students in the law department. The 1870 law provided that graduates of this department should be entitled to admission to the bar upon their certificate of
graduation Graduation is the awarding of a diploma to a student by an educational institution. It may also refer to the ceremony that is associated with it. The date of the graduation ceremony is often called graduation day. The graduation ceremony is a ...
—that is, their
law degree A law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law. Such degrees are generally preparation for legal careers. But while their curricula may be reviewed by legal authority, they do not confer a license themselves. A legal license is gra ...
. It was offered to encourage future lawyers to get a formal legal education instead of simply "
reading law Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under th ...
," which was the typical legal training of the time. Graduates of out-of-state law schools, even if they are Wisconsin residents, must still take the Wisconsin bar exam to be admitted in Wisconsin. Likewise, graduates of Wisconsin law schools must take the bar exam in many other states in which they are going to practice. A number of U.S. states do not grant reciprocal admission for attorneys who obtained their bar admission through the diploma privilege, requiring those attorneys to take that state's bar exam, regardless of the length of that attorney's practice. The policy reasoning behind diploma privilege is to incentivize Wisconsin residents to attend in-state law schools and to keep Wisconsin residents working in-state. Another policy consideration is preventing "brain drain" in Wisconsin. This theory holds that without the diploma privilege, the smartest from the state will leave Wisconsin for their education or for their career, specifically to nearby
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
(the Iowa Bar Association cited similar territorial concerns). Another advantage is that state of Wisconsin subsidizes in-state resident tuition for law students, and therefore incentivizes them to stay to retain the state's educational investment. It is also claimed that the diploma privilege helps keep youth in Wisconsin. In ''Wiesmueller v. Kosobucki'', a
class action A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...
lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil act ...
certified in the
United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin The United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin (in case citations, W.D. Wis.) is a federal court in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Seventh Circuit (except for patent claims and claims agains ...
in June 2008, the petitioners asserted that the state's policy discriminates against interstate commerce in violation of the
Commerce Clause The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amon ...
because it affords a diploma privilege in lieu of a bar examination only to lawyers graduating from Wisconsin's law schools. The suit sought
injunctive relief An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or i ...
to expand the privilege to all applicants to the Wisconsin Bar who obtain a J.D. from any law school accredited by the American Bar Association. The district court subsequently dismissed the case for failure to state a cause of action. On July 9, 2009, the Seventh Circuit reversed the district court's dismissal of the case, saying "we find ourselves in an evidentiary vacuum created by the early termination of the case," and remanded the case to the district court.


Diploma privilege during the COVID-19 pandemic

There has been a renewed interest in diploma privilege as an alternative to the bar examination, which is generally administered in large conference rooms and auditoriums every July and February, in light of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
. On March 22, 2020, several legal scholars who study licensure identified "emergency diploma privilege" as an alternative that showed "considerable promise" in a working paper discussing how states may continue to license new lawyers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), which writes the
Uniform Bar Exam In the United States, those seeking to become lawyers must normally pass a bar examination before they can be admitted to the bar and become licensed to practice law. Bar exams are administered by states or territories, generally by agencies under ...
(UBE), came out in opposition of diploma privilege in a
white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white paper ...
in which it argued that bar exams ensure lawyer competency. Several legal news outlets criticized the NCBE's position, noting that the NCBE has a conflict of interest as the developer of the UBE and that the NCBE's President and CEO, Judith Gundersen, is a recipient of diploma privilege herself. A number of petitions for emergency diploma privilege by law school deans, professors, and recent graduates in other states have grown. Organizations like United for Diploma Privilege have hosted
webinars Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of the peer-le ...
and organized recent graduates to circulate similar petitions in over 30 states. On March 27,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
became the first state to announce the postponement of its July 2020 bar examination as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several states and territories followed suit by postponing their exams to August, September, or October, while others have looked for alternative options to an in-person examination, including remote examinations or offering diploma privilege to qualified individuals. 39 jurisdictions postponed or canceled their July bar examinations, with postponed exams taking place in September, October, or other dates. 25 jurisdictions are offered remotely-administered examinations. On April 21,
Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...
became the first state to grant temporary, emergency diploma privilege during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, Washington, Oregon, Louisiana, and the District of Columbia have all instituted temporary diploma privilege policies, as detailed in the table below. However, some Washington legal employers have told recent graduates that they will not recognize diploma privilege and want them to sit for the test regardless. In the District of Columbia, candidates who choose the diploma privilege option rather than taking the bar examination must be supervised for three years by a qualified attorney admitted to the D.C. bar. On July 6, New York State Senator
Brad Hoylman Brad Madison Hoylman (born October 27, 1965) is an American Democratic politician. First elected in 2012, Hoylman represents the 27th District in the New York State Senate, covering much of Lower and Midtown Manhattan in New York City. He is C ...
introduced legislation to provide 2020 graduates with diploma privilege.


Notes


References


External links

*Moran, Beverly. The Wisconsin Diploma Privilege: Try It, You'll Like It, 2000 Wis. L. Rev. 645 (2000).
Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules, Chapter 40
relating to bar admission *Reed, Alfred Zantzinger. ''Training for the Public Profession of the Law'' (Foundation 1921) pp. 266 (noting the abolition of the diploma privilege in California). *''In re Yanni'', 2005 SD 59, ¶ 13, 697 N.W.2d 394, 399 (describing the privilege's abolition in S.D.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Diploma Privilege Legal education in the United States Professional certification in law