An Alternative to the NM Bar Exam – A Good Thing?
Frost McGahey, Investigative Journalist
Chief Justice Julie Vargas, NM Supreme Court Website photo
On August 4, 2026, the New Mexico Supreme Court announced a new pathway allowing law-school graduates to become licensed in New Mexico without taking the traditional bar examination.
Under the new system, an applicant can choose the bar exam or do 675 hours of supervisedlegal work within one year. At the end, the applicant must submit a portfolio of legal work to the New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners for evaluation.
The New Mexico Supreme Court's reasoning according to Chief Justice Julie Vargas is that there are not enough lawyers in the state. She says that two-thirds of New Mexico counties have fewer than one lawyer for every 1,000 residents.
A local retired lawyer was asked if this was a good option. He said, "I've taken both the Illinois and NM Bar exams, and they are both grueling three days of testing. Your whole future depends on passing. There's enormous stress because of the time and money spent. Some people are not good test takers, but would make excellent lawyers. I support this alternative, and we do have a lack of lawyers in Grant County."
The University of New Mexico's School of Law tuition is $21,200 plus an additional $24,000 estimated for housing, food, books, etc. for an annual cost of $45,200 x 3 years = $135,600.
Who proposed it? The New Mexico Supreme Court initiated a study of this option. It appointed a committee of lawyers, judges, and law professors to examine alternatives to the traditional bar examination. The committee studied the issue for more than a year and recommended creation of the skills-based pathway.
What will an applicant actually have to do? New Mexico is not eliminating the bar exam. A law graduate will have two possible routes: the exam OR 675 hours of supervised legal work. Why 675 hours? NM says its program is based on Oregon's. At 40 qualifying hours a week, 675 hours works out to about 17 weeks of full-time supervised legal work.
Requirements include eight substantial pieces of written legal work, four client meetings, six advocacy appearances before a judge, two negotiations, four investigations, and 15 documented professional interactions, plus experience in law-practice management.
Opposition: Opponents contend that a standardized bar examination is the fairest and most reliable way of establishing minimum competence and protecting the public.
Some participants were concerned that the alternative license would be viewed as a "lesser"pathway. They worried that large law firms might refuse to hire lawyers who qualified this way. They also raised concerns about how supervising lawyers would be vetted, ethics, what standards would be used to grade applicants, and whether different types of legal work could be evaluated fairly.
Rural lawyers raised another practical problem: the very places supposedly benefiting from the program may have the greatest difficulty participating. The report says solo and small-firm rural attorneys may not have the capacity to supervise these candidates.
Many interviewees were concerned that the 675 hour pathway would not test minimum competence.
Judges already have a concern about existing lawyers: A survey of 158 New Mexico judges found substantial concern about the competence of already licensed new lawyers: 63% of responding judges said unprepared lawyers in their first five years had negatively affected client advocacy, and 62% thought lawyers in their first five years needed additional training before being prepared to practice in court.
Who was Consulted? The legal community was consulted with over 12 presentations reaching 975 people. Audiences included the State Bar Board of Bar Commissioners, Young Lawyers Division, UNM law faculty and students, the Oliver Seth Inn of Court, District Attorneys Association, Tribal-State Judicial Consortium, Jackrabbit Bar Conference, and Public Defender conference.
The alternative to the bar exam is expected to begin in 2027.
University of New Mexico School of Law: In researching this article, it was noticed that the ranking of University of New Mexico's School of Law has fallen to #117 in 2026 when in 2016 it was #60
Could that be due to some of the courses being offered?
- Racialnomics: Dialogue and Conversations on Selected Topics in Race, Law, and Economics — teaches Critical Race Theory (CRT) and applies CRT to property, contracts, criminal law, torts, and civil procedure. .
- Environmental Justice — examines whether environmental harms disproportionately affect racial minorities, poor people, immigrants, children, the elderly, and other groups.
- Social Change Advocacy — focuses on representing "impoverished, oppressed, or otherwise marginalized people" and examines social identity, groups, interests, power, and critical legal theory.
- Algorithmic Justice — examines disparate outcomes involving race and other factors in automated decision-making in criminal justice, employment, housing and health care.
School of Law Vision Statement: Be a global leader in realizing human potential, addressing critical community challenges, and demonstrating the power of inclusive diversity.
