Plan would allow bar exam before graduation

The Virginia Board of Bar Examiners says law students should be able to sit for the bar exam in their last semester of law school.

The change would give debt-saddled students a head start on earning an income after graduation, says VBBE president Anita O. Poston.

“Our Virginia students are behind the eight ball in terms of being able to get jobs and be employed,” Poston told delegates at a Feb. 4 committee hearing.

Law school deans are not opposed, she added.

“They are very keenly aware of the amount of debt that their students graduate with,” Poston said.

An America Bar Association survey last year showed the average young lawyer with student loan debt owed a cumulative $130,000 at law school graduation. About a third of the borrowers added an average $8,785 of debt for bar preparation.

One delegate questioned law students’ ability to juggle classes and intensive bar prep in order to take the bar exam in February.

“How can a law student who still has to finish their term possibly submit to that rigorous schedule of review?” asked Del. Tim Anderson, R-Virginia Beach.

Poston said not everyone will want to try.

“It’s an opportunity and a choice,” she said.

“I wouldn’t have done this, but there are some people in law school who could do it,” said Del. Rip Sullivan, D-Arlington County.

The bill to allow students to sit for the bar exam after five semesters of law school is House Bill 117, introduced by Del. Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City. A House Courts subcommittee voted 7-1 to recommend approval, with only Anderson objecting. The full Courts committee reported the bill 19-1 on Feb. 7.

Under current law, most bar applicants are required to have completed all law school degree requirements. The proposed change would not affect Virginia requirements for those who “read the law” to qualify for the bar exam.

The VBBE had allowed law students to sit for the bar in February of their graduation year until 1980, when the current law went into effect, according to a VBBE spokesperson.

The VBBE has rejected adoption of the Uniform Bar Exam, which provides aspiring lawyers with a portable score to seek admission in multiple UBE jurisdictions, the spokesperson said.

“The Board has declined to adopt the UBE,” VBBE Secretary and Treasurer Catherine Crooks Hill said Feb. 7, without elaboration.

The UBE has been adopted by 29 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands, according to the website of the National Conference of Bar Examiners.