You may become a lawyer the same way as Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson did: not through law school, but through supervised experience!

This Washington State program, authorized by Licensing Rule 6, provides for any college graduate of good moral character basically to apprentice into the law. You study hard while working as a law clerk; at the end of the program, you take the same Bar Exam as anyone else and, when successful, become a lawyer (a) free of the crushing burden of law school loans, and (b) actually knowing how to file a motion at a courthouse!

Official information on the Law Clerk Program is at The WSBA Law Clerk Page.

Projects:

Creation of a Section of the Washington State Bar for Law Clerks and Alumni. Law Clerk Lawyers need an association for fellowship, education and networking.

Promotion of Law Clerking as a solution to the problem of inadequate legal services. Populations that are underserved by lawyers are better helped by creating their own lawyers than by payments to lawyers outside the population. The old saw about teaching people to fish applies to the law; and no means of teaching lawyering to an indigent population can be more economical and effective than Law Clerking!

The elimination of legalized discrimination against Law Clerk Lawyers. Currently some states refuse to extend recognition to Law Clerk Lawyers. This will cease when we educate and demonstrate that Law Clerk Lawyers are as good or better than any other.