On November 7th, the Oregon Supreme Court made a historic unanimous vote approving an alternative method for attaining attorney licensure aside from the traditional bar exam – becoming the first state in the US to do so.
Known as the Oregon Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination (SPPE), this alternative offers a new way for candidates to prove their minimum competence to practice law. Successful completion of the SPPE program will allow these candidates to be admitted to the Oregon State Bar without the need to take either the Uniform Bar Examination or Model Professional Responsibility Examination.
This change in approach has been met with approval from legal academic circles. David Friedman, associate dean for Strategic Initiatives and professor of law at Willamette, noted that while the bar exam had long been a convenient testing route, it gradually diverted from assessing the genuine knowledge and skills required by new lawyers. According to Friedman, this latest development is a recognition that ‘skills matter’ in the legal profession.