The Bar Exam Prevents Non-Elites from Entering the Legal Profession

Nora Weiss, a rising junior at George Washington University, said that the bar exam is an unnecessary barrier to entry into the law profession.

In an article published on Study Breaks, Weiss argued that the bar exam was created to impede non-elites from entering the legal profession, adding that it was used as a gatekeeping mechanism to prevent people of color and other marginalized individuals from becoming licensed attorneys.

“Historically, the American Bar Association systematically denied admission to aspiring Black lawyers,” Weiss said. “Given the notoriously racist practices of the ABA, in 1925, a group of Black attorneys who were denied admission to the ABA joined together to create the Negro Bar Association, now known as the National Bar Association (NBA). Unwittingly, this marginalized group of attorneys established the most expansive network of predominately Black legal professionals, which still stands today.”

According to Weiss, black people are less represented in law than in almost any other profession in the United States.

“It is abundantly clear that white men and women are drastically overrepresented within the field of law; although Black people comprise 13.4% of the U.S. population, only about 5% of licensed attorneys identify as Black,” said Weiss. “This has remained true for over a decade, indicating that social progress within the legal profession is stagnant, and Black representation is severely lacking. While the bar exam is not wholly responsible for inequity within the field of law, it is very likely a contributing factor to the longstanding lack of diversity and unequal opportunity for aspiring lawyers of marginalized identities.”

In closing, Weiss said that the bar exam only assesses individuals’ memorization and test-taking abilities and is highly influenced by the extent to which participants can invest in preparation services, which give an intrinsic and unfair advantage to wealthy candidates.

“Most importantly, the bar exam fails to actually ensure legal competence or predict the professional success of aspiring attorneys,” Weiss said. “Hence, its continued use as a mechanism for entry into the field of law must be deeply and critically questioned.”