576 Pass Washington State Bar Examination

Seattle Washington, October 17, 2002 — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) announces that 576 candidates passed the Bar Examination that was administered in July 2002. Of the 854 candidates who took the exam, 67.4 percent passed the test. Statistical information and a list of those who passed the exam are attached and also available on the WSBA Web site at www.wsba.org/lawyers/licensing/barexam2002summer.htm.

Given in two parts over a three-day period, the Bar Examination includes a substantive law exam and an exam on the Rules of Professional Conduct. Candidates must successfully pass both parts in order to qualify for admission to the WSBA. If a candidate passes one part of the examination and fails the other, the candidate may sit for the next examination without having to retake the portion previously passed.

In 1999, the Washington State Supreme Court approved Admission to Practice Rule (APR) 18, which provides a procedure for the reciprocal admission of lawyers without requiring that those lawyers pass the Washington State Bar Examination. Lawyers from other states, U.S. territories or the District of Columbia are admitted to the WSBA on the same terms and conditions that a Washington lawyer could be admitted in the other state. This rule also enables Washington lawyers to seek admission in those states that provide for some form of reciprocal admission. (For more information, see the WSBA Web site at www.wsba.org/lawyers/licensing/faq-reciprocity.htm.)

The Washington State Bar Association is a private, nonprofit organization authorized by the Washington Supreme Court to license the state's 27,300 lawyers. The WSBA both regulates lawyers under the authority of the Court and serves its members as a professional association — all without public funding. As a regulatory agency, it administers the bar exam, provides record-keeping and licensing functions, and administers the lawyer discipline program. As a professional association, the WSBA provides continuing legal education for attorneys, in addition to numerous other educational and member-service activities.