Under a new skills-based pathway to licensure, those who graduate from law school can win admittance to the state bar by completing a certain amount of supervised legal work and then submitting a portfolio of that work demonstrating their competency in multiple areas, according to New Mexico Chief Justice Julie Vargas.
The program has two goals, according to Justice Vargas, who said the first objective is to ensure that new attorneys coming out of law school are better prepared to practice law.
A national survey conducted in 2025 by the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators' Committee on Legal Education and Admissions Reform found that many students graduating from law school don't feel practice-ready, she explained.
"So, one of the things we hope that the skills-based pathway will accomplish is to give these new lawyers a little bit more support so that when they are handling cases on their own, they feel more comfortable and are able to provide better representation to their clients," Justice Vargas said.
The program is also intended to alleviate the shortage of attorneys in New Mexico's rural areas, with the hope that aging lawyers in those parts of the state will recruit and supervise newly graduated law students who might one day take over their practices, according to the chief justice.
"I've heard from a lot of older lawyers who say, 'Gee, I'd really love to retire, but there's nobody to take my clients and I feel an obligation to them,'" Justice Vargas said. "So, we're hoping that we can get some more people to move out to the rural communities if these lawyers are willing to take them on and train them."
The program, which will be run by the state's Board of Bar Examiners and is expected to begin accepting applications by summer 2027, stems from the recommendation of a committee appointed by the state's Supreme Court to look into the adequacy of the current bar examination process and the possibility for new pathways to bar admission.
The committee's June report cited the state's shortage of attorneys, particularly in rural areas, and the fact that surveyed judges noted a decline in newly admitted attorneys' skills as reasons a new path toward attorney licensure is necessary.
The full-time study necessary to pass the bar exam also negatively impacts minorities seeking to join the ranks of attorneys, according to the committee's report.
The state Supreme Court adopted the committee's recommendations and established a process for developing the necessary rules and training guides to implement the new program in an order on July 30.
To participate, applicants with a law degree will have to identify a supervising attorney or host organization, which can be a law firm, governmental organization or civil legal aid provider. They will then receive a provisional license to perform legal work.
Applicants must then complete at least 675 hours of supervised legal work within a 12-month period and submit a portfolio of that work that demonstrates their competency in areas including legal writing, client meetings, courtroom advocacy, negotiations, investigations, interactions with other legal professionals and law practice management, according to an announcement of the program on Tuesday.
Applicants' portfolios might include their own journal entries and supervising attorneys' evaluations of their performance during hearings and client meetings, although rubrics for how applicants will be evaluated are still being formulated, Justice Vargas said.
"We actually think that the students coming out of law school that do this program are going to be in better shape than a lot of the students who choose to take the bar exam," the chief justice said.
New Mexico is the latest state to explore possible alternative pathways to attorney licensure that don't involve the traditional bar exam, with seven other states already enacting such pathways, according to the committee's report.
The Utah Supreme Court approved a skills-based alternate pathway for law school graduates to become licensed attorneys in September.
Washington's Supreme Court approved plans in 2024 for law school graduates to become lawyers without taking that state's bar exam by working as a law firm intern during law school or as an apprentice to an attorney afterward.
--Editing by Nicole Bleier.
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