D.C. Weighs Alternative Licensing for Law School Grads

The District of Columbia’s top court is weighing whether to join a small group of states allowing “diploma privilege” by granting recent law school graduates the right to gain a D.C. law license without taking a bar exam.

Action by the D.C. Court of Appeals comes as groups within the American Bar Association are petitioning its House of Delegates to urge states to end plans for future in-person bar exams during the pandemic, because of risks to “long-term health—or life.”

The federal city’s highest district court is seeking public comment over the next two weeks on diploma privilege and provisional ...