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Washington plans unified supervised-practice pathway; court and bar weigh reciprocity and exam rollout
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Summary
WSBA implementation leaders told the Supreme Court the state is on track for 2027 licensure reform, proposing nine core competencies and a possible single supervised-practice requirement (825 hours). Justices and staff raised reciprocity and NextGen bar-exam concerns for portability to other states.
The Washington State Bar Association's implementation team told the Supreme Court it remains on track to implement multiple pathways to licensure by 2027 and is developing a portfolio- and supervised-practice model intended to verify nine core competencies across all pathways.
"We are on track to implement this by 2027," said Jordan Couch, the governor leading the implementation work, who described nine competencies that must be demonstrated (legal-process knowledge; issue identification; research; applying authority to facts; professional responsibility; client communication; and effective client interaction, among others) and a portfolio requirement that includes client interviews, a negotiation and research demonstrations.
Couch said the implementation group is considering a simplified supervised-practice standard that would require 825 hours for all candidates, combining earlier proposed pathways into a single, uniform requirement. The portfolio must include two client interviews or counseling sessions, one negotiation, research examples and either MPRE passage or three written professional-responsibility responses developed by WSBA.
Court members focused on reciprocity and the rollout of the National Conference of Bar Examiners' NextGen exam. WSBA staff said UBE scores remain transferable but portfolio or portfolio-score portability is not automatic and will depend on other states' willingness to accept alternative-pathway evidence. "What Washington has done is lowered our comity rule to practicing 1 year in the last 3," Couch said, describing the state's approach to creating parity for apprenticeships and other pathways.
Justice Montoya Lewis and others emphasized that Washington's reforms are partly motivated by concerns about disparate impacts of a single high-stakes bar exam on examinees of color and applicants with disabilities and that the state's goals differ from other states that are expanding pathways to meet workforce shortages.
WSBA staff and court members agreed that implementation will require ongoing national conversations about reciprocity and that any changes will be phased to protect consumer interests. The court asked WSBA to return updates on portfolio design, supervised-practice standards and plans to track outcomes once the pilot pathways are in operation.
The court and WSBA flagged related work on character-and-fitness review and other rules as items that may come back to the bench for first and second readings in spring.