For three years, law school has been a sprint for Madison Droubay — casebooks, finals, internships — all leading up to one looming test. Now that final hurdle might be gone.
Like most law students in their final year at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, Droubay had the next couple of years planned down to the week: graduate in April 2026, take the bar that July, start her job at Spencer Fane soon after. Over the last two years she worked as a summer associate at the Salt Lake City-based law firm and eventually signed an offer letter, with the condition that she pass the bar exam after graduation.
But then came a Utah Supreme Court ruling that put her carefully laid plans in question. Utah had opened up an alternate pathway for Droubay and other law school graduates to become a licensed attorney without taking the bar exam.
“I guess I was surprised on the timing of it — I thought it wouldn't pass until after I graduated," Droubay said. "I just never thought it would be an option for me. And so in that sense, I was surprised, but kind of excited — really excited.”
For some, like BYU Law graduate Stacy Runia, the decision was more than exciting — it was a relief.
Runia refers to herself as a “non-traditional” student. Instead of going to law school right after finishing her bachelor’s degree, she stayed home and had a family. Now, at 41 years old, she has four kids and finished law school in April. With kids out of school for the summer, she knew she would not be able to sit for the July exam, especially with the preparation courses that preceded it.
“I just knew that wasn't really an option for me,” Runia said, “so I was going to put it off and sign up for the February exam, which is still not ideal, because the studying is typically full-time a couple months before the exam — and that's like right during the holidays.”
Now she says it’s a huge relief to know she will be able to focus on her family during the upcoming holiday season without the stress of the exam permeating quality time with her kids.
The ruling that created this opportunity for Runia and Droubay was years in the making, explained Catherine Bramble, an associate professor at BYU Law.
“It's been five years of my life's work, and now it's inspiring and exciting that we have a court that is willing to consider new and better ways to do things," she said.
Bramble was part of the task force that developed the alternate pathway to licensure. Her work began in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when standardized tests became difficult to administer. Utah’s two law schools, BYU Law and the University of Utah, petitioned the Utah Supreme Court to see if it would consider an emergency exception for the bar exam.
That year, Utah became the first state in the country to grant an emergency privilege for attorneys to be licensed with 360 hours of supervised practice and without the bar exam.
“And the sky did not fall,” Bramble said. “Nothing fell apart. It was a successful alternate measure — whereas other jurisdictions, some were paralyzed for over a year.”
In the fall of 2020, Utah’s Supreme Court created a task force that included 15 academics, practitioners, and law professors to look at the possibility of there being another way to license attorneys.
“What's so interesting about the bar exam,” Bramble said, “is that it is an exam that most practicing attorneys today would fail. So that means either we are all not competent, or it's testing the wrong things.”
After two years, the task force unanimously decided an alternate pathway to the bar should be proposed, and a subgroup of five individuals spent the next three years developing the proposal.
The program that resulted is based on a study called “Building a Better Bar: The Twelve Building Blocks of Minimum Competence,” co-authored by Debby Merritt, a distinguished legal scholar and professor emerita at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Merritt has been a long-time leading advocate for reforming the lawyer licensing process, and her study identified the 12 critical skills needed for attorneys to be competent in practice.
“Utah's path is the first that is based on that study,” Bramble explained, “and that seeks to be a comprehensive licensure system that prepares attorneys more realistically than any path that's ever been proposed in the country.”
Typically, a law school graduate will spend six to eight weeks in an exam prep course before taking the two-day bar exam, which together can cost up to $4,000.
The new alternate pathway, by contrast, requires completion of specific law school courses and a post-graduation apprenticeship-style program that includes 240 hours of supervised practice under a qualified attorney, with at least 50 hours of pro bono work. Some apprenticeships will even pay law graduates.
Unlike the traditional bar exam, competence will be assessed through a performance-based written evaluation simulating real-world legal tasks — such as drafting briefs or client correspondence.
“What's really cool about this exam,” said Bramble, “is it is one that practicing, competent attorneys should be able to pass today, and at the same time, will be rigorous enough that you couldn't take a lay person — you know, Joe Schmo up the street — and have them pass. It will be a rigorous exam, but it will be reflective of what we actually do in practice.”
Emily Lee, the deputy general counsel for the Utah State Bar, directs admissions to the bar. She explained that her office will continue to monitor the progress of the program by requiring those who choose it to complete a survey when they reach the end.
“I imagine that as we gain that data and as we run people through this program, that there might be some changes to the rules just to make it more effective,” Lee said.
There’s one glaring downside to Utah’s alternate pathway — portability. Attorneys who take the alternate pathway are only able to practice in Utah. On the other hand, those who take the traditional bar exam can practice in Utah and, depending on the state, may be eligible to practice in other states through reciprocity. Bramble hopes that will one day change.
“Over the last five years,” she said, “I've talked to probably over a dozen jurisdictions, different constituencies, that have reached out to me or other people in the task force — a lot of other states are thinking about it …. So it's not crazy to think that states could do this — a lot are interested. It's just hard, and it's scary, and it's new and it's different. So there really is an appetite.”
As Utah prepares to welcome its first class of alternate-pathway attorneys, firms will be the first to feel the impact. Zachary Wiseman is a director and shareholder at Ray Quinney & Nebeker, one of Utah’s oldest law firms. The 90-year-old firm employs just over 100 attorneys, and Wiseman is the head of recruiting.
“I've always felt that the bar is — you know, having taken the bar exam myself — that it was not a great tool for a firm like mine,” Wiseman said.
His firm already hires recent graduates who begin work as unlicensed attorneys while they study for the bar exam. During those months, however, they can’t appear in court or sign filings, and much of their time is spent preparing for the exam rather than contributing billable work.
“Right now we're paying people to be here studying for the bar exam,” Wiseman said. “So in my mind, it's actually a great thing for us, because we could pay people to actually do work.”
And so, he said, he would not hesitate to hire someone who opted out of the bar exam.
That’s good news for Droubay, the 3L student whose post-graduation plans were shaken up by the Utah Supreme Court’s ruling. She has a lunch meeting scheduled for next month with the firm she has accepted an offer from to discuss the alternate pathway.
“It's something I'm considering,” she said, “I haven't made a decision yet, because, honestly, I want to talk to some of the attorneys at the firm that I'm going to be working at to see what their opinions are.”
Whether she takes the alternate pathway or not, Droubay said she’s grateful for the professors and advocates who worked to create it.
“They're doing this not for themselves, but they're doing it for future law students. And just how incredible is it that we have professors and people who are looking out for the next generation and trying to help us succeed in the best way possible?”