Recent law graduates around the nation are preparing to take grueling state bar exams this week. For the past few months, recent UW law grads were buried in BARBRI and other bar exam prep materials. Sleep-deprived and full of caffine, these students know how important the bar exam is to their future in another state. However, as one friend remarked, "Hey, at least if I fail the bar exam, I know that I can still be a lawyer in Wisconsin!" That may be true...for awhile anyway.
A March 20, 2010 settlement in Wiesmueller v. Kosobucki brought an end to the more well-known challenge to Wisconsin's diploma privilege. In that case, Wiesmueller, originally an Oklahoma law student, brought suit challenging the diploma privilege in federal court alleging that it violated the dormant commerce clause. The Wisconsin Attorney General countered with the argument that UW and MU law schools teach Wisconsin law, rendering out-of-state law school graduates not similarly-situated for purposes of a dormant commerce clause challenge. After a tumultuous trip going back and forth between the district court and the court of appeals, Wiesmueller finally agreed to drop the suit.
While the Wiesmueller settlement ended one challenge, a lesser known challenge to the diploma privilege still looms. In September of 2009, former Wisconsin State Bar president Steven Levine filed a petition with the Wisconsin Supreme Court asking for the court to either expand Wisconsin's diploma privilege to all ABA-accredited law school graduates or abolish the privilege completely. This petition tries to do something that has been twice before struck down: once in 1927 when the state bar declined to abandon the privilege; and a second time in 1974 when an assembly bill extending the privilege to graduates of all law schools failed. On July 6, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held a debate on the petition. A public hearing with an open administrative conference is now scheduled for September 20, 2010 at 9:30 am.
You can read the petition here: http://www.wicourts.gov/supreme/docs/0909petition.pdf.
A March 20, 2010 settlement in Wiesmueller v. Kosobucki brought an end to the more well-known challenge to Wisconsin's diploma privilege. In that case, Wiesmueller, originally an Oklahoma law student, brought suit challenging the diploma privilege in federal court alleging that it violated the dormant commerce clause. The Wisconsin Attorney General countered with the argument that UW and MU law schools teach Wisconsin law, rendering out-of-state law school graduates not similarly-situated for purposes of a dormant commerce clause challenge. After a tumultuous trip going back and forth between the district court and the court of appeals, Wiesmueller finally agreed to drop the suit.
While the Wiesmueller settlement ended one challenge, a lesser known challenge to the diploma privilege still looms. In September of 2009, former Wisconsin State Bar president Steven Levine filed a petition with the Wisconsin Supreme Court asking for the court to either expand Wisconsin's diploma privilege to all ABA-accredited law school graduates or abolish the privilege completely. This petition tries to do something that has been twice before struck down: once in 1927 when the state bar declined to abandon the privilege; and a second time in 1974 when an assembly bill extending the privilege to graduates of all law schools failed. On July 6, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held a debate on the petition. A public hearing with an open administrative conference is now scheduled for September 20, 2010 at 9:30 am.
You can read the petition here: http://www.wicourts.gov/supreme/docs/0909petition.pdf.
The diploma privilege is part of Supreme Court Rule 40.03, available here: http://www.wicourts.gov/sc/scrule/DisplayDocument.html?content=html&seqNo=1073.
