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How to Become a Lawyer Without Going to Law School
One of the most important steps in the process is the bar exam. A bar examination is a test intended to determine whether or not a candidate is qualified to practice law in a specific jurisdiction. As an international student, taking the bar is even more complex than for US-born law students.
Yes, it is possible to practice without a JD
BY ALISON MONAHAN Updated December 02, 2019
It’s possible to become a practicing lawyer without going to law school in some states. Most lawyers do attend law school, but there are some advantages to avoiding it if you can manage it. You’ll avoid the high cost of law school and perhaps gain more on-the-ground experience shadowing a working lawyer.
The History of Law Schools and Lawyer Careers
Working as an apprentice in a law office was how most people became lawyers in the United States centuries ago. The date of the first law school in the United States is debated, but the general consensus is that it was sometime during the late 1700s. We had lawyers before that time, however.
Where Can You Become a Lawyer
Pick your location carefully if you want to become a lawyer without going to law school. Only four states—California, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington—allow potential law students to skip law school entirely. Three others—Maine, New York, and Wyoming—require some law school experience, but they allow an apprenticeship to substitute for one or two years of law school.
Each state’s exact rules are different. In Virginia, for example, a legal apprentice cannot be paid by the supervising attorney. In Washington, they must be paid by the attorney.
Requirements
An apprentice is typically required to work a certain number of hours in a law practice each week for a given number of weeks. Some hours must be spent under the direct supervision of an attorney, and a certain number of study hours are also required. The mentoring attorney must meet a minimum level of experience in all states, ranging from three years in Vermont to 10 years in Virginia and Washington.
Legal apprentices in California are required to pass the First-Year Law Students’ Examination, or “Baby Bar,” to continue with their studies and sit for the actual bar exam. This exam is quite difficult, has a very low pass rate, and is a formidable obstacle.
The Advantages of Skipping Law School
The most obvious benefit of becoming a lawyer through a legal apprentice program is avoiding the high cost of a traditional legal education, which most students finance with student loans. Of course, some of this cost can be offset via law school scholarships, but the harsh reality is that many law students graduate with more debt than they can comfortably payback. It can limit their career options.
Other potential benefits include learning the law in the community instead of going away to school. Given that rural areas tend to face a shortage of lawyers, setting up apprentice programs in these locations can be a good way to keep ambitious local students in the community and working on local legal needs.
Finally, it’s indisputable that the average legal apprentice will have more hands-on experience than most new law school graduates. At most, the average law grad has done one clinic and perhaps a handful of summer jobs, internships, or externships. Most of a student’s time is taken up with classes, particularly in the first two years.
The Disadvantages of Skipping School
It’s critical to decide where you want to live long term before entering an apprenticeship program because you probably won’t be admitted to practice in any other state. And potential clients and employers might be reluctant to hire anyone who didn’t go to law school simply because it’s so unusual.
Finally, the reality is that it’s hard to pass the bar exam without at least some law school experience. Although not impossible, the pass rates are low. It’s risky to spend years as a legal apprentice if you never manage to pass the bar exam. In fairness, however, this is also an issue faced by students of non-ABA-accredited law schools and even some ABA-accredited ones.
Graduates of ABA-accredited law schools who are registered for the July or September bar exam in Washington state can skip the test and still practice law.
According to a Washington Supreme Court order, those would-be lawyers can practice under the diploma privilege if they are registered to take the test for the first time or for a repeated time.
The June 12 order also allows those registered to take the July exam to become a limited license legal technician to practice their craft without taking the test.
The Utah Supreme Court was the first to announce it is allowing some would-be lawyers to practice law without taking the bar exam during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those allowed to practice must have been registered to take the July bar exam and must have graduated from ABA-accredited law schools with first-time bar passage rates of at least 86%.
Those who have failed a bar exam and don’t have a law license elsewhere are not eligible for diploma privilege practice in Utah. The state also requires 360 hours of supervised practice by a lawyer who has practiced law at least seven years, including at least two years in Utah.
Both Utah and Washington say the diploma privilege option is a temporary accommodation.
Wisconsin has long allowed in-state law graduates to practice law in the state without taking the bar exam.
The Washington Supreme Court had initially rejected a diploma privilege proposal, Law.com reports. The publication spoke with Seattle University Law Dean Annette Clark, who had asked the court to reconsider.“I think what really tipped it was the killing of George Floyd and the unrest that happened after that,” Clark told Law.com. “You take everything the graduates had already been experiencing, then you throw that into the mix. We—the faculty and administration—were hearing from our graduates of the physical and emotional toll that all of this was taking.”
what states can you practice law without passing the bar
After starting as a legal assistant I have spent at least a decade working in the legal industry. I also graduated from Rutgers School of Law with J.D. degree. In this article I go over possibilities of practicing law with or without passing bar exam.
Note, that as a new trend, in several states non-attorneys can fully practice law in limited areas of law.
Generally, in all US states, a person can practice law only after passing the bar exam and obtaining an attorney license. Practicing law without getting an attorney’s license is unauthorized practice of law. It is illegal and can lead to criminal charges. But in several states non-attorneys now can practice law without passing bar exam.
Let me tell you few details that attorneys usually do not say to their clients. Then, in this article, I will tell you about some interesting details of practicing law with or without passing bar exam.
Is the bar exam required to practice law?
Generally, one must pass the bar exam to practice law in any state in the USA. Law students who are trained in law school and graduate can be considered lawyers but not attorneys.
Essentially, they are non-practicing unbarred lawyers or non-lawyers under current commonly accepted legal standards.
I wrote a whole article on this difference. Check my blog to see the legal distinction between lawyer and attorney and what this difference means.
Without passing the bar exam, even a lawyer’s career options are limited in the legal industry. There are multiple restrictions on law practice without a bar license.
But, states like California, New York, Washington, Virginia, Vermont have rules allowing people to take the bar exam without going to law school.
Why bar exam and attorney license are necessary to practice law?
There are two reasons why a person must be a licensed attorney to practice law in the USA. The most cited reason is ensuring the quality of the attorney’s work.
The bar exam is very intellectually challenging. Mostly smart people pass the bar exam.
Passing the bar exam ensures at least some minimal standard for intellect and knowledge among attorneys. In addition, it shows that the attorney can earn, analyze, and apply legal rules and norms for the benefit of a client.
That is true. Most attorneys are intelligent and capable people. But unfortunately, I have met just a couple of truly incompetent attorneys.
One of them was a young attorney who just recently passed the bar. Another was an attorney with 15+ years of experience, which gave me bad incorrect advice.
He could not even offer an intelligent explanation when I confronted him about that a little later. Instead, he started showing me a map on which he showed counties where he was practicing law and known as a reasonable attorney.
So, he told me. I had no slightest idea what it had to do with the fact that he screwed and gave me wrong advice. Luckily, I was able to fix the problem myself after reading a bunch of materials.
I avoided bankruptcy, avoided repo, and set my situation right. I was just a law student then. Apparently, even bar exam is not a guarantee of incompetence in law.
Also, the bar exam ensures the uniform quality of attorneys. Several states like California and New York allow people to take bar exams without going to law school. For example, applicants who studied law abroad may do it.
That means that people with very different qualities and levels of knowledge may try to get into practicing law. Having a single bar exam for everyone weeds out those who think way differently than the current legal system requires. Or, those who are not well-trained in US law.
Passing the bar exam does not ensure an attorney’s ethics and morals
The other problem is that passing the bar exam does not automatically guarantee that newly minted attorneys will follow ethics rules to the core. And legal ethics has not had much to do with morals – those are two different concepts.
Legal ethics means following rules established by the legal profession – mostly rules created by American Bar Association.
The real reason why they introduced bar exam and attorney licensing requirements
The real reason attorneys must pass the bar exam to practice law is to limit access to the profession and protect the local market. That is my personal opinion.
A long time ago, there was no bar exam requirement. Well, there even was no law school. So instead, lawyers became lawyers through apprenticeship.
Then lawyers created state bar associations, started such restrictions as passing the bar exam, and law schools popped up all over the country.
Those limited requirements entry into the profession of practicing law, driving up revenue and profits for attorneys.
Previously lawyers could essentially move around the country. And many lawyers could concentrate in a better market by just moving there, therefore diluting markets and reducing overall profits—supply and demand law in action.
To avoid that, to protect local profits, many bar associations across the country introduced restrictions like the provincial state bar exam.
It is my personal opinion that this was another primary reason for the bar exam passing requirement. They do not talk about it. But such restriction makes perfect economic sense if you think about protecting your profits.
However, the legal profession suffered from a drop in law school applications due to a lack of jobs. So, now they are streamlining bar exams around the country by introducing a single uniform bar exam precisely for many different states.
This makes the profession more unified and liquid and less rigid, allowing better access to legal services for lower-income individuals.
Who can practice law without passing the bar exam
Generally, nobody in the USA can practice law without passing the bar exam and admittance to a local state bar. But many federal government agencies allow paralegals or non-lawyers who never passed bar exam to independently prepare legal paperwork for clients.
The unauthorized practice of law can result in criminal penalties for those who engage in it. Said that independent paralegals and legal paraprofessionals increasingly practice law without passing the bar exam and a license.
I remember instances when immigration document preparers or immigration paralegals essentially worked on immigration cases without attorneys.
I have seen whole immigration document preparation services that essentially represented their INS (USCIS) US immigration service clients.
They did it without a single licensed attorney reviewing their work or even being present in the office. That was not entirely legal, but USCIS allows paralegals to work on immigration paperwork independently without passing the bar exam.
Note, that several states already allow paralegals to prepare paperwork for federal law agencies. They still cannot provide legal advice or consult clients on legal matters.
Those areas include quite a few federal agencies ranging from USCIS (immigration), to bankruptcy to social security disability matters.
That work usually is limited to preparing paperwork. Such paralegals typically do not give legal advice or at least refrain from doing it openly.
In some states, such paralegals or document preparers must register with respective authority or the court. For example, bankruptcy petition preparers sometimes register with the local bankruptcy court.
CURRENT TRENDS IN PRACTICE OF LAW BY NON-LAWYERS
Recently several states officially allowed paralegals or other such professionals to independently practice law in few areas. See my other article on this blog for details about that. Those paraprofessionals never passed bar exam but can either prepare paperwork.
Under limited circumstances, they can even fully engage in law practice in bankruptcy, immigration, evictions defense, family law and a few other areas without an attorney.
This is new growing trend, and it varies from state to state. See my other blog post with details about things paralegal can do without a lawyer. I extensively and in details go over which states allow that.
As time progresses, more and more such legal professionals will provide limited legal services to the public without passing the bar exam.
The reason is simple – legal services are costly, and many people do not have access to them because of this extremely high cost.
That cost results from bar associations artificially limiting access to the legal profession via bar exam and licensing requirements.
This is not a free market – this is the opposite of a free-market situation. Essentially, this is a cartel setup.
Honestly, I have seen some very experienced paralegals who knew their craft much better than many young attorneys.
And I have seen young and not-so-young attorneys screwing up client’s cases because of simple incompetence. This is a controversial topic. The legal profession is unfair. Well, life is unfair.
I should note, that such major restriction on ability of people to practice certain profession in demand from the public is not only a danger to public policy.
It can also be major constitutional violation of right to property (income) and right to choose your service provider. But who cares about that when money is involved, right?
On the other hand, any paralegal or legal professional can pair up with a local licensed attorney and work under supervision, even doing their legal work. That is fine as long as they follow the rules of legal ethics.
It is still unlawful to practice law without passing bar exam
I must emphasize, that developments allowing non-lawyers perform legal work in some states are limited. Practicing law without ever passing bar exam and obtaining attorney license is largely unlawful (illegal) in most US states.
Say, you decided that you want to explore path of independent paralegal or such other professional in those states. You must carefully learn what is allowed and what is not.
Also, states define and regulate such professionals very differently. I suggest doing lots of research to avoid getting into trouble for unauthorized practice of law.
Because the line between lawfully providing legal services and unauthorized practice of law is still very thin for those who never passed the bar.
Self-representation without passing bar exam is a practice of law
In limited circumstances, a person may be allowed to represent themselves in court or other legal proceedings without the presence of an attorney. That is not advisable, but some people do it.
That is also the practice of law on one’s behalf, and it falls under an exception. Because by not having an attorney, such a person essentially is screwing himself or herself, not the other people.
People can represent themselves in criminal proceedings, in personal bankruptcy, in immigration proceedings, for example. Not having an attorney and self-representation may end up badly for such a person, though.
Criminal judges may be more lenient to such self-represented defendants. Judges may bend over for criminal defendants because the fundamental constitutional right of liberty is involved.
But civil court judges hate such people. Often they could not care less if self-represented people make significant errors of law or procedure.
Another example is small claims court – many states do not allow attorneys to work in small courts, and people represent themselves.
More Recent Developments
Opinions in some significant publications recently starting calling for limiting ABA’s ability to regulate the legal industry because, currently, lawyers have a tight monopoly grip on it.
Writers are calling to eliminate bar exams, for example, to allow more people to practice law without passing the bar exam. That means offering legal services at a lower cost, making legal services more affordable.
I am for it in some way. Unfortunately, the current state of the price structure for legal services often leads to clients’ bankruptcies in the long run without necessarily solving their legal problems.
I do not see this significant relaxation of rules happening any time soon.
On the other hand, several states like Oregon, New Mexico and several more now officially allow paralegals or legal paraprofessionals to provide full array of legal services in limited areas of law from family law to eviction defense to preparation of legal documents.
In few instances such professionals are even allowed to give legal advice and represent clients like a lawyer. With out ever taking and passing bar exam.
This is new recent trend and I talk more about it in my other subsequent blog articles about things paralegals can do without a lawyer.
Tricks to Practice Law Without Passing Bar Exam
Without passing the bar exam, one cannot get admitted to the bar. Without being barred, a person generally is not allowed to practice law in the USA.
That means not being authorized to give legal advice or represent a client in legal matters.
Even more so, a non-lawyer is not even allowed to have their clients for legal matters in most states.
So you thought you could outsmart thousands of experienced attorneys who are implementing all these rules to guard their profession and their profits? Lol.
The article’s point is that practicing law without passing the bar exam may get anyone in big trouble or potentially even land in prison under current rules. Of course, no law firm will hire an unbarred person in the capacity of an attorney.
Maximum what one can do is apply for a paralegal, law clerk, or any similar position to perform legal work under the supervision of an attorney. One famous example is Erin Brockovich – there is a Hollywood movie about her.
Said that, there are few tricks of how one can practice law without passing the bar exam. Those options are few, but they make it possible.
With recent trends, we may see the time soon when non-lawyers can engage in an independent legal career without passing the bar exam.
I have seen some independent, experienced paralegals pair up with attorneys, where paralegal performs limited narrow type of work and allegedly works under the supervision of that attorney.
That arrangement may work if such paralegal or document preparers know what they are doing and carefully avoid breaking legal ethics rules.
And such a paralegal should not damage their clients by making legal mistakes because their legal errors will be attributed to supervising attorneys. That is why most attorneys will not agree to such an arrangement unless they see a significant profit.
The best route to law practice is still to go to law school, pass the bar exam, and get admitted as a member of the state bar.
Now you can call yourself an attorney and be free to consult clients and represent them in court or other legal matters.
Practicing law is a serious undertaking with high stakes. Because the client’s life, liberty, or assets are on the line, making a mistake may hurt them plenty.
But some matters are tiny and can be handled by a non-licensed professional.
For example, I needed someone in another state to go to court and obtain a clearance letter on my behalf and then bring it to a local DMV to clear my record.
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