Diploma Privilege - Diploma Privilege in Wisconsin

Diploma Privilege in Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, graduates of the two American Bar Association-accredited law schools in the state (Marquette University Law School and the University of Wisconsin Law School) may seek admission to the State Bar of Wisconsin without having to sit for a bar examination.

The diploma privilege in Wisconsin dates to 1870, when it was passed as part of the same legislation that established the University of Wisconsin Law School. At that time a law department was established in the State University and a course of study under able instructors was prescribed for students in the law department. The 1870 law provided that graduates of this department should be entitled to admission to the bar upon their certificate of graduation — that is, their law degree. It was offered to encourage future lawyers to get a formal legal education instead of simply "reading law," which was the typical legal training of the time. This has ever since been known as "diploma privilege."

Graduates of out-of-state law schools, even if they are Wisconsin residents, must still take the Wisconsin bar exam to be admitted in Wisconsin. Likewise, graduates of Wisconsin law schools must take the bar exam in many other states in which they are going to practice. A number of U.S. states do not grant reciprocal admission for attorneys who obtained their bar admission through the diploma privilege, requiring those attorneys to take that state's bar exam, regardless of the length of that attorney's practice.

In Wiesmueller v. Kosubucki, a class action lawsuit certified in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin in June 2008, the petitioners assert that the Wisconsin diploma privilege discriminates against interstate commerce in violation of the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause because it affords a diploma privilege in lieu of a bar examination only to lawyers graduating from Wisconsin's law schools. The suit sought injunctive relief to expand the privilege to all applicants to the Wisconsin Bar who obtain a law degree from any school accredited by the American Bar Association. The district court subsequently dismissed the case for failure to state a cause of action.

On July 9, 2009, the Seventh Circuit reversed the district court's dismissal of the case, saying "we find ourselves in an evidentiary vacuum created by the early termination of the case," and remanded the case to the district court. The Seventh Circuit opinion.