Transforming Justice: Practice Ready Lawyers,
Admission to the Bar, and Access to Justice

Education Program

Committee on Legal Education and Admissions Reform (CLEAR) – Purpose and Scope

Pursuant to CCJ and COSCA Joint Resolution 1 (July 2023), In Support of Establishing the Working Committee on Legal Education and Admissions Reform (CLEAR), a 12-member committee composed of CCJ and COSCA members has spent two years assessing the current state of legal education, defining standards for minimum competence to practice law, and identifying the skills necessary to be practice-ready upon graduation from law school.  The following series of education sessions will review the findings and recommendations of the CLEAR working groups: Practice Readiness; Bar Admissions; and Promoting Public Interest.

CLEAR Part 1 – Framing the Issues, Assessing the Landscape, and Examining Practice Readiness

Description:  This session will provide an overview of CLEAR’s work, including the goals of the project, the legal education and practice landscape, and the methods used to collect data from stakeholders.  Following the overview, the speakers will discuss practice readiness – the problem, the findings, and alternatives.

  • Facilitators: 

    • C. Shannon Bacon, Justice, New Mexico Supreme Court and Vice Chair of CLEAR

    • Gordon J. MacDonald, Chief Justice of New Hampshire and Chair of CLEAR

  • Moderator:  Valerie Stanfill, Chief Justice of Maine

    Panel:

    • Courtney Brooks, Director, Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program, University of New Hampshire

    • Zachariah DeMeola, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives, Law School Admissions Council

    • Leigh Saufley, President and Dean, University of Maine School of Law

CLEAR Part 2 – Admissions to the Bar and Promoting the Public Interest

Description: In the first part of this two-part session, the speakers will report on CLEAR’s work related to bar admissions: defining standards for minimum competence to practice law; evaluating the bar admissions process; and examining current and promising testing and alternative bar admissions processes. In the second part, the speakers will discuss the challenges of promoting the public interest by meeting the legal needs of underserved people in an environment in which public interest and government organizations have difficulty hiring and retaining attorneys.

  • Moderator:  Meagan Flynn, Chief Justice of Oregon

    Panel:

    • Joan W. Howarth, Emerita Professor of Law, University of Nevada Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law

    • Deborah Jones Merritt, Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law Emerita, The Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law

  • Moderator:  Steven R. Jensen, Chief Justice of South Dakota

    Panel:

    • Bennett Baur, Chief Public Defender, New Mexico Law Office of the Public Defender

    • Steve Grumm, Senior Consultant, thredpartners

CLEAR Part 3 – Putting it all Together:  Recommendations and Alternatives from CLEAR

Description: In this final CLEAR session, the leaders of the project will discuss next steps and the role of CCJ and COSCA in promoting and implementing strategies to develop practice-ready lawyers, alternate pathways to bar admission, and promotion of public interest law careers. There will be ample opportunities in this session for reactions, questions, and discussion with CCJ and COSCA members in response to the CLEAR recommendations.

  • Panel:

    • C. Shannon Bacon, Justice, New Mexico Supreme Court and Vice Chair of CLEAR

    • Meagan Flynn, Chief Justice of Oregon

    • Steven R. Jensen, Chief Justice of South Dakota

    • Gordon J. MacDonald, Chief Justice of New Hampshire and Chair of CLEAR

    • Valerie Stanfill, Chief Justice of Maine

Access to Justice and Legal Assistance

Description: Several state court systems have convened task forces and commissions to identify ways to improve access to justice. Rules have been promulgated to authorize and regulate licensed paraprofessionals, community justice workers, court guides, limited paralegal practitioners, and other non-traditional legal service providers. In this session, the panelists will first provide the groundwork by defining terms and describing the current landscape for regulatory reform.  Following this summary,  participants will then learn from each other in table discussions about obstacles and opportunities they have experienced in their own efforts to implement access to justice initiatives.

  • Panel:

    • David K. Byers, Administrative Director of the Courts, Arizona Supreme Court

    • Justin P. Forkner, Chief Administrative Officer, Indiana Supreme Court