District of Columbia Permits Law School Grads to Skip Bar Exam During COVID-19

On Thursday the D.C. Court of Appeals approved an “emergency examination waiver” to the biannual test for lawyers, despite having mentioned it was leaning toward offering a diploma privilege-style option in a Sept. 15 order. Essentially, graduates of law school could temporarily become licensed but would have to pass the bar examination at some point in their career to be able to practice.

“The court therefore has determined, on a one-time basis, to permit certain recent law- school graduates to be admitted to the D.C. Bar without taking or passing a bar examination,” the court said, “under a number of conditions intended to safeguard the public’s interest in the competence and good character of those who are permitted to practice law in the District of Columbia.”

The District of Columbia will now be the fifth jurisdiction in the United States to allow certain law school graduates to be admitted to the state bar without having to take the exam.

“We understand that the COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented circumstances, but we believe that the other steps the court has taken (offering a remote examination, negotiating reciprocity agreements with twelve other jurisdictions to accept the scores from the remote exam, and expanding the opportunity for temporary supervised practice) are sufficient accommodations,” the judges wrote.