The Rhode Island Judiciary recently released the results from the February 2019 Rhode Island bar examination. On their face, the results continue the remarkable downward trend in the number of attorneys eligible to practice law in Rhode Island. The 47% pass rate and the low number of 28 lawyers passing the exam are far below historical numbers. In 2010, for example, 55 people (70% pass rate) passed the February bar exam, and 147 people passed in July (76% pass rate), for a grand total of 202 new attorneys eligible for admission in the 2010 cycle. The annualized 2019 cycle is a different story: combining the last two bar exams (July 2018/35 people, and Feb. 2019/28 people) — only 63 people are eligible for admission. The number of attorneys eligible for admission in 2019 dropped a remarkable 69% from the Rhode Island bar’s 2010 numbers.
Here is a snapshot of the pass rates for the last few Rhode Island bar examination cycles:
Fortunately, the Feb. 2019 numbers do not tell the whole story (if they did, Rhode Island would eventually have a lawyer shortage). In the Feb. 2019 bar exam cycle, for the first time, Rhode Island applicants had the option of using the Uniform Bar Exam. As RICourtBlog explained in a previous post, the Uniform Bar Exam is a standardized test that allows the applicant to use one exam score for attorney admission in many states. With the advent of the Uniform Bar Exam, Rhode Island applicants now have two avenues to bar admission: (1) sit for the examination in Rhode Island in February or July, or (2) petition for admission using the Uniform Bar Exam, and skip taking the Rhode Island-specific bar exam.
Rhode Island adopted the Uniform Bar Exam later in time than other states, which likely led budding attorneys to vote with their feet and apply for admission elsewhere. In September 2018, the Rhode Island Supreme Court addressed this problem by issuing a miscellaneous order that adopted the Uniform Bar Exam for Rhode Island effective February 28, 2019. The Supreme Court’s miscellaneous order requires a score on the Uniform Bar Exam score of 276 within 2 years of filing the petition for admission. The miscellaneous order also allowed this 2-year look-back rule to go in effect retroactively — so as of February 28, 2019, a lawyer petitioning for admission could use a qualifying Uniform Bar Exam score awarded on February 28, 2017 or later. This retroactive application prompted an unusual Supreme Court dissent and concerns over a potential influx of Rhode Island bar applicants.
As of this writing, the impact of the Uniform Bar Exam on the number attorneys admitted annually to the Rhode Island bar is unclear. Unlike sitting for the Rhode Island bar examination, which happens only twice a year, petitions for admission to the Rhode Island bar based on the Uniform Bar Exam can be submitted at any time on a rolling basis, as long as the Uniform Bar Exam score is within the last two years.
Presumably, new lawyers began petitioning for admission in Rhode Island on February 28, 2019 and continue to do so today. The Rhode Island Judiciary’s announcement that only 28 people passed the Rhode Island bar exam in February 2019 does not appear to include these Uniform Bar Exam petitioners. Their numbers will probably be released at a later date, or perhaps as part of a Judiciary report. When they are, a clearer picture of the Rhode Island bar will emerge. Did the concerns of the Supreme Court dissenters over the “number of applicants who will become immediately eligible” for bar admission based on the Uniform Bar Exam become realized? Counting the Uniform Bar Exam applicants, did over 200 new attorneys join the ranks of the Rhode Island bar like in 2010? Or are low attorney numbers the new normal? Stay tuned.