ANALYSIS: Why Oregon’s Bar Exam Alternative Could Gain Momentum

Oregon’s new Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination (SPPE), which will allow ABA-accredited law school graduates to join the state’s bar by completing a legal apprenticeship instead of taking the bar exam, could serve as a model for other states as scrutiny of the current bar exam mounts. Although the bar exam itself is facing an overhaul in 2026, Oregon’s apprenticeship alternative appears poised in the near term to strengthen real-world lawyering skills—skills that recently surveyed lawyers are finding lacking among new practitioners.

The SPPE, authorized by the Oregon Supreme Court last fall and set to become operative in May, mandates that applicants for bar entry complete a 675-hour apprenticeship under a qualified supervising Oregon-licensed attorney. Two of the SPPE’s prerequisites involve leading “at least 2 initial client interviews or client counseling sessions” and “at least 2 negotiations.”

These requirements directly address competencies that early-career lawyers appear to need more proficiency in: client advising and leadership skills.

In Bloomberg’s Law School Preparedness Survey, practicing attorneys in Spring 2023 were asked to rate the soft skills of the new lawyers that they supervise. More than two-thirds (69%) said they felt new hires were either “weak” or “very weak” in client counseling and advising, second only to business development (84%). Also, 62% of respondents said they perceive new lawyers as having weak leadership skills.

These metrics don’t evince a sanguine depiction of supervising lawyers’ confidence in the abilities of new lawyers, who received overall negative marks on eight of the 18 soft skills listed in the survey. Even so, it appears that Oregon’s apprenticeship could help curtail this perceived competence gap.

Leading interviews, counseling sessions, and negotiations would afford applicants worthwhile firsthand experience in authentic client situations, likely mitigating those soft skill deficiencies.

Furthermore, the survey also reported that two-thirds (67%) of law students said they’re more stressed about the bar exam than about the rest of the licensure/admissions process. So the SPPE and similar alternative programs may allure law graduates who seek ways to gain bar membership sans the anxiety of a two- or three-day test.

A state trend may already be under way. Washington’s supreme court recently approved three bar exam alternatives, one of which includes an apprenticeship. As other states like California and Minnesota look into adopting apprenticeship programs of their own, the opportunity to address this lack of proficiency in essential skills could further expand.

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