Representative Mary Fitzgerald (R-31/St. Onge) has previously proposed bills to get rid of South Dakota’s bar exam and create alternative routes to becoming a lawyer in South Dakota. Rep. Fitzgerald is trying again this year, offering House Bill 1270 to create a lawyer apprenticeship program.
HB 1270 would allow the state to license individuals to practice law after they complete 675 hours (that’s four months of full-time work) of apprenticeship under supervision of a qualified attorney in South Dakota. Apprentices must complete those hours within a one-year period. Supervising attorneys must certify that appreentices demonstrated “satisfactory performance of assigned tasks and responsibilities” and “knowledge and proficiency in legal ethics and professional responsibility.” Once licensed, former apprentices would have to perform at least 50 hours of pro bono legal services per year for the first five years of their licensure.
Rep. Fitzgerald isn’t proposing a full-tilt Abraham Lincoln (or Kim Kardashian) pathway to lawyering. HB 1270 apprentices would have to earn a degree from USD Law. Apprentices would also have to reside in South Dakota when they start and finish the apprenticeship. Their supervisors would have to hold South Dakota law licenses, be in good standing, and have been lawyering full-time for at least seven years.
Rep. Fitzgerald appears to copy HB 1270’s 675-hour requirement from Oregon, which became the first state to recognize legal apprenticeships as an alternative to the bar exam in 2024. Washington followed suit, adopting six-month apprenticeships for law school graduates. Utah adopted 240-hour apprenticeships for new lawyers last year.
How is this not a move confining lawyers to practice under South Dakota’s red state failure?
Is Noem’s daughter going to law school? If you are thinking of this, think about doing it to Med students who become doctors. You could use those to check out your Medicaid users. All kinds of benefits for using substandard professionals.
South Dakota bar exam first-time test-taker success has improved, often cited near 80%. Failure rates vary, with recent overall pass rates around 55% to 74% (implying a 26%–45% failure rate). (https://www.ncbex.org/statistics-research/bar-exam-results-jurisdiction).
Is this another solution in search of a problem, or is Mark’s implication correct — someone with connections wants to start lowering and cannot pass the bar?
USD Law School nearly lost it’s accrediation when they changed to a non-compensatory bar exam. SD had the lowest passage rate in the nation. There is now a shortage of lawyers in South Dakota. By the way, the SD bar exam does not have one question on South Dakota law. I’d love to share more. Cory thanks for the article.
There aren’t enough litigators to sue the Forest Service allowing Republicans to infiltrate management of the Black Hills National Forest so there is that.
Hi, Mary
There is no public record of USD Law being in danger of losing ABA accreditation over this.
ABA accreditation reviews are formal, documented, and taken extremely seriously. If USD had been “nearly” out of compliance, there would be:
ABA site visit reports
public notices
corrective action plans
local press coverage
USD statements
None of that exists.
This is the kind of claim legislators make when they want to sound like insiders with secret knowledge but don’t have receipts.
Verdict: Vague at best, misleading at worst.
As a retired teacher, I look back at all the tests I had to take to become a teacher. In Social Sciences, high school educators have to pass the Praxis test for each subject they teach in S.D.. In some bordering states and in California where I earned my teaching certificate, we were required to pass the National Teachers Exam. I had to complete three 10 week sessions of student teaching as well. To keep ones certificate up to date, 6 -9 college credits are required along with a plethora of work shops and in-services.
Plus we have mandatory testing for our students, a high stakes test that determines a great deal and can affect their future.
Seems to me that teachers are considered less professional than lawyers and make way less in income but have so many requirements. At least keep the test.
The bar exam that is to given to assess what’s being learned needs to match the standards that are being taught. It’s just like K – 12 education. Rewrite the test.
What kind of an absolute idiot would think a person should be able to be an apprentice for 4 months and the handle some of the most important legal affairs of a persons life when significant percentages of people cannot pass a competency exam (i.e., a bar exam) after 3 years of law school including in many cases intern/apprenticeships of 4 months or more. That means dispensing with legal education. How about the fact that many supervising lawyers will readily admit they are incompetent in all but very narrow areas of the law and will not be teaching their” apprentice” anything other than what they themselves know. Are we then going to give law licenses to practice in all areas of the law based on such a narrow experience? You can’t possibly be serious about this so what kind of harm are you really trying to do here? Next year is it medicine?
Is this an underhanded attempt to get the felon’s failed lawyers credibility?
Read it and wheep.
https://www.sdnewswatch.org/usd-law-school-facing-challenges-but-seeing-opportunities/
Dave’s article is from 2018: has USD Law made any progress in addressing those challenges since then?