In the United States, the diploma privilege is a method for lawyers to be admitted to the bar without taking a bar examination. Once used by as many as 32 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, Wisconsin is currently the only state that offers a broad diploma privilege for admission to its state bar. New Hampshire has offered diploma privilege to a limited number of students in a special practice-based program at the state's only law school since 2008. Originally used as a method to foster the growth of formal legal education, the privilege started to fall into disuse early in the 20th century, in common with the tightening of requirements in other learned professions. The privilege was abolished in California in 1917. Most recently, West Virginia did away with the privilege in 1988, preceded by Montana and South Dakota in 1983 and Mississippi in 1981.
In 25 states, attorneys who were initially admitted to practice by another state's diploma privilege are eligible for admission to the state bar on motion of the admission committee.
Read more about Diploma Privilege: Diploma Privilege in Wisconsin
Famous quotes containing the words diploma and/or privilege:
“Our father has an even more important function than modeling manhood for us. He is also the authority to let us relax the requirements of the masculine model: if our father accepts us, then that declares us masculine enough to join the company of men. We, in effect, have our diploma in masculinity and can go on to develop other skills.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“Melancholy has ceased to be an individual phenomenon, an exception. It has become the class privilege of the wage earner, a mass state of mind that finds its cause wherever life is governed by production quotas.”
—Günther Grass (b. 1927)