Bar OKs provisional license for grads back to 2015

The State Bar Board of Trustees on Friday approved extending a provisional licensure program to include graduates who took the bar exam from July 2015 to February 2020.

The state Supreme Court ordered the bar in July to create a provisional licensure program to help 2020 graduates affected by the pandemic.

The program allows those who graduated between Dec. 1, 2019, and Dec. 31, 2020 to practice under the supervision of an attorney. After two years, provisional attorneys would have to retake the bar exam.

The bar opened up the application process to the provisional licensure program on Nov. 17. It is slated to end June 1, 2022. More than 1,100 applicants have applied and 603 of those were approved as of Jan. 5.

When the court also lowered the passage score from 1,440 to 1,390, calls were raised to allow those who scored 1,390 in previous exams to join the program and become licensed after completing a certain set of hours, without retaking and passing the exam.

Proposed Rule 9.49.1, which passed the board unanimously, takes the proposition closer to reality. The court would have to approve the rule and decide how many hours graduates must complete before gaining licensure.

The bar sent two options to the court.

The first option would require individuals who scored 1,390 or higher between exams administered between July 2017 and February 2020 to complete 360 hours of supervised legal practice. Those who scored above the new cut score between July 2015 and February 2017 would have to complete 480 hours.

The second option would require 400 hours or 600 hours, respectively.

The bar anticipates more than 2,000 applicants would become eligible should the court extend the program. Approximately 750 of those would also have to submit moral character applications.

The original language of the proposal said that the program would go into effect on March 1. The bar amended it to read "with an effective date of no later than March 1."