2022 Alternatives to the Bar Exam CLE Archive Product
Product description:
In January 2022, the Oregon Supreme Court approved in concept two pathways to licensure in addition to the bar exam. The idea of giving applicants choice between pathways to demonstrate their competence to practice law is at the cutting edge of licensure reform that is sweeping bars (and other professions) across the US.Oregon is now in the process of building the specifics of the two programs—a Supervised Practice Pathway and an Experiential Curriculum Pathway. Come hear about the two pathways and engage in an open dialogue to provide feedback to help shape these programs.
Visit the Library of Defense Webinars page to access the recording and written materials.
Deborah Jones Merritt is the John Deaver Drinko/Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law Emerita at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. While on the faculty, she taught both criminal defense and criminal prosecution clinics. She is also the coauthor of the leading evidence textbook, Learning Evidence: From the Federal Rules to the Courtroom. In 2019-2020 she led a national study of lawyering competence, which produced the report Building a Better Bar: The Twelve Building Blocks of Minimum Competence (coauthored with Logan Cornett). Several states, including Oregon, have used that report to examine their licensing processes and explore new methods of measuring minimum competence. Professor Merritt’s research has also influenced the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which has used her as a consultant on its NextGen bar exam.
Joanna Perini-Abbott (Jo) is a principal at Angeli Law Group. She began her career as a federal public defender and then transitioned to a large law firm practicing civil litigation. Now her practice combines large, high stakes civil litigation and white collar criminal defense. She is also still active in taking appointed public defense cases from the federal courts. She has been on the Board of Bar Examiners for the past 6 years and was vice chair and chair through 2020 and 2021 as the COVID pandemic hit. In 2021 she was the chair to the Alternatives to the Exam Task Force in 2021. Following approval by the Oregon Supreme Court in concept of the two proposed additional pathways to licensure, Jo was appointed as chair of the Licensing Pathways Development Committee tasked with building the specifics of the two additional pathways.