Washington State Ditches Bar Exam Over ‘Racism,’ Offers Alternatives for Prospective Lawyers

The standardized test was found to have ‘disproportionate impacts on examinees of color.’
Washington State Ditches Bar Exam Over ‘Racism,’ Offers Alternatives for Prospective Lawyers
A file photo of students taking an exam. Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images
Bill Pan
Bill Pan
Reporter
|Updated:

Those who want to practice law in Washington state will no longer have to pass the bar exam, the state’s highest court ruled, in an effort to reduce “historical barriers” that nonwhite aspirants purportedly face.

In a pair of orders handed down on March 15, the Washington Supreme Court approved three “alternative pathways to lawyer licensure,” making the state the second in the nation to move away from traditional testing for law graduates.