Purpose and Scope

State supreme courts serve as the legal profession’s primary regulator having responsibility for overseeing admission to and the practice of law directly within their respective jurisdictions. As such and given the charge from Resolution 1, state supreme courts have a strong interest to assess the current state of legal education; define standards for minimum competence to practice law and the skills necessary to be practice-ready upon graduation from law school; determine what reforms should be made to legal education and bar admissions; and identify steps that ensure legal education and bar admissions continue to protect the public through the ethical practice of law and also to prepare and incentivize public interest lawyering.

The CLEAR Committee will engage with critical stakeholders from legal education, bar admissions, courts, and the practicing bar (with special emphasis on public interest lawyers) through the course of this work, especially as it relates to staffing working groups. The CLEAR Committee will also engage with the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education, law school deans, and many national legal organizations dedicated to public interest lawyering.

Over the course of this work, the CLEAR Committee will develop recommendations for national, state, and local consideration. A final report of findings and recommendations will be shared with the full Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators.

The CLEAR Committee will review the current state of legal education from admissions to law school to admission to the bar. The Committee will work collaboratively, in consultation with critical stakeholders from legal education, bar admissions, courts, and the practicing bar from across the country. The Committee will also look to other professions for inspiration and example.

Working Groups

1. Practice Readiness

• Define the core components of practice-readiness at law school graduation,
• Examine the existing trends in legal education and the law school experience related to practice-readiness, and
• Make recommendations for innovations that promote practice readiness at graduation.

2. Bar Admissions

• Define standards for minimum competence to practice law,
• Evaluate the bar admissions process as it relates to assessing doctrinal, ethical, and practice-ready competence, and
• Make recommendations for state supreme courts (and their designees) on current and promising testing and alternative bar admissions processes.

3. Promoting Public Interest

• Examine the burdens on public interest and government organizations in hiring and retaining attorneys and the challenges law school graduates face entering and staying in roles that meet the legal needs of underserved people,
• Examine the existing trends in legal education and the law school experience (including cost of legal education) that promote or limit opportunities to enter public interest roles, and
• Make recommendations for innovations that promote opportunities for law school graduates to pursue careers in public service or to represent those currently underserved by the profession.