The diploma privilege is a method for lawyers to be admitted to the bar without taking a bar examination. Once used by as many as 32 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, Wisconsin is currently the only state that offers the diploma privilege for admission to its state bar. Originally used as a method to foster the growth of formal legal education the privilege began fading early last century in common with the tightening of requirements seen in other learned professions. This early trend may be exemplified by states such as California where the privilege was abolished in 1917. Most recently, West Virginia did away with the privilege in 1988, preceded by Montana and South Dakota in 1983, while Mississippi had done so in 1981.
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.[1]
Diploma privilege in Wisconsin
Wisconsin's diploma privilege goes back to 1870, when it was passed as part of the same legislation that established the University of Wisconsin Law School. 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. It was offered to encourage future lawyers to get a formal legal education instead of simply "reading law", which was the typical legal training of the time.[2] This has ever since been known as "diploma privilege."
The upshot of the privilege is that, in Wisconsin, graduates of the two American Bar Association-accredited law schools in the state—the Marquette University Law School and the University of Wisconsin Law School—may seek admission to the State Bar of Wisconsin without having to sit for a bar examination.
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.
Wiesmueller v. Kosubucki, a class action certified in federal court in June 2008, asserts that the Wisconsin diploma privilege discriminates against interstate commerce in violation of the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause because it affords a diploma privilege in lieu of a bar examination only to lawyers graduating from Wisconsin's law schools. The suit seeks injunctive relief to expand the privilege to all applicants to the Wisconsin Bar who obtain a law degree from any school accredited by the American Bar Association.[3]
See also
External links
References
- ^ "Reciprocity, Comity, and Attorneys Exams" (chart), Comprehensive Guide to Bar Admission Requirements 2008, National Conference of Bar Examiners and American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, 2008, p. 28.
- ^ Steven Levine, "End Separate-But-Equal Bar Admission", Wisconsin Lawyer, Vol. 75, No. 12, December 2002.
- ^ --- F.R.D. ----, 2008 WL 2415459 (W.D. Wis., 2008).
- 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.)
- Essays on Other Lawyers Licensing Processes and Alternatives to the Bar Examination, National Conference of Bar Examiners (2005)
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