The Delaware Supreme Court is reducing the minimum score, length, and practice areas covered by Delaware’s bar exam, citing a desire to make the legal profession more racially diverse.
This is occurring in tandem with lower-quality applicants: fewer applicants have been passing the Delaware Bar exam have also fallen. A larger percentage of applicants are black or Hispanic than used to be the case.
The minimum passing score for the multiple choice portion of the exam has been reduced. The number of essays included in the exam will fall from eight to four, and the practice areas covered by the exam will be reduced from 14 to 10. And instead of the exam taking two and a half days, it will take only two, reports Reuters.
Also, the exam will be offered twice a year, rather than once, giving applicants who fail more opportunities to retake it.
A recent report notes that bar pass rates have fallen to “around 52%, the lowest rates recorded since 2004.”
Expanding racial diversity has become a big goal of many in the legal community, and it has been cited as a reason for getting rid of the use of other tests, such as the LSAT.
Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Seitz co-authored a 2022 report called “Improving Diversity in the Delaware Bench and Bar.”
Chief of Community Relations Sean O’Sullivan says that the “Delaware Judiciary believes it is important that the Delaware Bar reflect the diversity of the community it serves.”
Many Delaware lawyers “feel that the bar admission process may significantly contribute to the lack of diversity within the Delaware bar,” according to the 2022 report. On the other hand, “many attorneys and judges of color who were interviewed voiced concern that adjustments might be seen as race-based accommodations that would lead others to claim that they are not as qualified as others seeking admission.”
One lawyer objected that “making the exam easier to pass means more less qualified individuals will pass the test. These changes do not reflect modernization, but rather, mediocrity.”
