Posted on 08/08/2026 3:24:52 PM PDT by Libloather
They’re lowering the bar.
New Mexico is the newest state in the country to offer an alternative to the traditional bar exam — which critics bashed as yet another woke example of lowering academic standards.
New Mexico has become the latest state to give law school graduates an alternative to the traditional bar exam, allowing them to earn a license by completing 675 hours of supervised legal work under an attorney or approved host organization.
Law school grads will now be able to get their license after finishing 675 hours of supervised legal work under an attorney or host organization, the state’s supreme court announced Tuesday.
Graduates can still take the two-day bar exam, but supporters of the new program say hands-on legal work could be a better test of whether someone is actually prepared to practice law — while helping fill a shortage of attorneys in rural parts of the state.
New Mexico’s court explained that two-thirds of its counties have less than one attorney per every 1,000 residents, making them a region the American Bar Association refers to as a “legal desert.”
“This new option for admission to the practice of law also has the potential to increase the number of attorneys in New Mexico to address unmet legal needs, particularly in rural areas where it is difficult to find a lawyer,” New Mexico Chief Justice Julie Vargas said in a statement.
Critics bashed the alternative.
“Too dumb to pass the bar, so we back door them in,” one said on a KRQE News Facebook post.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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“Any law license obtained this way should to have an asterisk on it.”
Exactly right.
I never pass a dive bar.
*********************************
Dive bars for me - US, Germany, Southeast Asia, Spain, Britain, Ukraine.
Language a problem on occasion but they’ll help you out.
If you can’t remember the local word for beer just look around - there will be beer signs on the walls. Saved me a few times (grin).
how much education do you need for cases like Crack possession or sales? let the low information crowd have their license... with the amount of judges letting people go, lawyers arent needed anymore...
There is a rationale for the current system. The requirement of a law degree in order to become a lawyer is meant to assure a wide range of legal knowledge by lawyers. The problem of limited availability of lawyers is better addressed by expanding the numbers of and scope of work by paralegals.
Yes.
Smiles
Paralegals if competently supervised.
They are doing it wrong. Keep the bar exam, remove the requirement to go to law school.
Students can learn all they need using an AI tool.
You’re probably thinking of Shakespeare’s famous line:
> **“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”**
It appears in ***Henry VI, Part 2*, Act IV, Scene 2**, spoken by **Dick the Butcher**, one of Jack Cade’s followers. ([Royal Shakespeare Company][1])
What’s interesting is that the line is **often misunderstood** as Shakespeare himself saying lawyers are terrible. In the scene, Cade’s rebellion is trying to overthrow the existing order. Immediately afterward, Cade attacks the written law and legal documents. ([Folger Shakespeare Library][2])
So there’s a strong argument that the joke is actually:
**If you want to destroy the rule of law and establish arbitrary power, lawyers are among the first people you need to get rid of.**
That’s why the line has acquired an almost opposite interpretation over the centuries: **lawyers can be obnoxious, but their existence makes tyranny harder.**
[1]: https://www.rsc.org.uk/henry-vi-part-ii/about-the-play/famous-quotes?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Famous Quotes | Henry VI Part II | Royal Shakespeare Company”
[2]: https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/henry-vi-part-2/read/4/2/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Henry VI, Part 2 - Act 4, scene 2 | Folger Shakespeare Library”
No, but those people I foresee will be causing general social justice havoc. Now if all of them become public defenders, bad news for defendants.
“This isn’t just about lowering standards for the lawyer”.
.
For lawyers, there isn’t a standard low enough...!
Why not just pass out politician licenses to go with the lawyer ducat
They seem to attract each other might be some nexus after all.
There’s only one way to prevent this and that is to make the ambulance chasing part of the work accreditation be done using a car with a stick shift. ( Do I really need a “/s” label?)
Not so fast there, scholar. Dick the Butcher was a famous wrestler in the Detroit area when I was a young lad. He feuded regularly with Dick “Mr. Michigan” Garza and Bobo Brazilian to name a couple…
Not even 4 months work for that few hours. (At only 40 hours per week, 2200 hours is just one year.)
And they will get credit for time served too.
Did AOC pass her bar exam?
Of course. Nowadays, technology permits supervision and even client contact to be done remotely with paralegals doing much of the routine work. Drafting wills and simple divorces, for example, can be done in storefronts. I have wondered why the big personal injury firms do not set up such operations in order to generate a base of loyal clients.
Interesting question.
Maybe those victims law firms think running storefront clinics is beneath their dignity? Or just maybe they aren’t turned on by selling $29 wills at Walmart?
I agree that there’s room for a significant expansion of low cost clinics — which would need to rely primarily on low cost workers (and a lot k on c fill- in - the blank forms and AI)
I wonder if an entrepreneurial oriented investor like Musk might give it a serious go?
Applicants should complete the two-day bar examination and prove themselves with 675 hours of supervised work.
Regards,
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