Should S.D. lawyers have to pass bar exam? Committee report wants alternative pathway

Steering committee appointed by Supreme Court issues report

Photo by Eilis Garvey on Unsplash

Future lawyers in South Dakota could bypass the South Dakota Bar Examination and still practice law in the state under a proposal released Wednesday by a steering committee appointed by the Supreme Court.

The report creates a “streamlined pathway for public interest” that would give law students who practice public interest law or serve rural areas a “fast track to admissions without examination through a curriculum of required coursework and completion of externships with one or more trained attorney supervisors and a two-year post- graduate commitment to public service.”

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In the short term, the report suggests that the bar maintain the current exam while adopting a new exam that will be developed in 2026. The report advises that a requirement to know Indian law be maintained, either through the exam or through coursework.

The bar exam has been a topic of debate in recent years among South Dakota lawmakers and the legal community. Part of that stemmed from passage rates that started falling after 2013 to the point that South Dakota’s passage rate fell behind the national rate in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

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