What exactly should be the requirements to become a licensed lawyer? #LSAT? #LawSchool?

The article referenced in the above tweet continues the discussion of what exactly should be the licensing standard to become a lawyer? This discussion has been prompted largely be the decline in law school applicants in the United States. During the last few years the following questions have been raised:

1. Should the LSAT be required for law school admissions?

2. How long should law school be?

3. What is the role of the bar exam?

NCA applicants will find the discussion to be particularly interesting.

The article begins with:

For decades, law school graduates have endured a stressful rite of passage, spending the first 10 weeks after classes end taking cram courses in the arcane details of the law before sitting down for the grueling, days-long bar exam. Those who do not pass cannot practice law, at least in nearly all the states and the District of Columbia that consider the exam the professional standard.

But that standard, so long unquestioned, is facing a new round of scrutiny — not just from the test takers but from law school deans and some state legal establishments. Some states, including Arizona, Iowa and New Hampshire, are exploring or have adopted other options, questioning the wisdom of relying on a single written test as the gateway to legal practice.

The debate over the exam is not new, but it broke out in the open after the results of last summer’s exam were released in the fall, showing that the 51,005 test takers had the poorest results in nearly a decade.

You can read the complete article here.