The Delaware Supreme Court is introducing a wave of changes to the state’s bar exam, considered by many to be among the toughest in the entire United States, in a bid to make it more accessible for black and Latino test takers.
The court lowered the minimum grade required to pass the bar by two questions on Tuesday and will also feature half as many essay prompts and henceforth be held twice a year.
Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz Jr., one of the lawyers who spearheaded the change in an attempt to improve racial diversity in the legal profession, dismissed accusations that the measure would reduce the quality of Delaware lawyers.
Seitz Jr. “noted that this is not a lowering of the standards but a modernization of the process to better reflect how other states handle admission to the bar. The chief justice said these reforms will keep Delaware competitive in attracting top legal talent to the state and keep Delawareans interested in the law from going elsewhere,” a court spokesman told a local news outlet.
“The bar exam is not supposed to be a barrier to entering the profession but is supposed to be a test of an applicant’s ability to successfully practice law in Delaware and I believe these reforms will help better reflect that purpose,” the spokesman added.
Seitz Jr. originally launched the initiative alongside then-associate justice Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, who became the first black justice to ever serve on the Delaware Supreme Court.
According to research from the “diversity project” led by Seitz Jr. and Montgomery-Reeves, about 22 percent of Delaware residents are black while only 16 percent of judges across the state are black.
Chuck Durante, president of the Delaware State Bar Association, applauded the move as a necessary reform ditching outdated protocols.
“These changes are designed to remove certain unnecessary impediments to applications to the Delaware bar, to rip some barbed wire from the welcome mat, some traditional barriers that had developed into something quite artificial,’’ Durante told the local outlet.
“White people generally who have their antennae up, who understand what is happening in society, have learned the meaning of microaggression. They’ve learned the meaning of how to be welcoming, how to be professional, how to make this community better suited for diversity in its professional class, including its lawyers,” Durante added.
In February, the American Bar Association policymaking body rejected a motion to drop standardized tests, such as the LSAT, over the objections of advocates insisting it would improve law school racial diversity.