The Louisiana Supreme Court has issued a ruling that will allow recent law school graduates to practice law without taking the bar exam. The exam was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, and the high court granted many of them what is called “diploma privilege.”

The Advocate reported that the court ruling “set off fiercely opposing reactions.” It said recent graduates celebrated, but three of the court’s seven members “filed blistering dissents into the record.”

Justices Will Crain, James Genovese and Jefferson Hughes said the state would be licensing unqualified attorneys who may be unfit to serve the public. A quarter of the state law school graduates who took the July bar exam for the first time last year failed it.

To be a “qualified candidate” to start practicing law applicants must have registered for the July or October 2020 bar exams, have graduated from an American Bar Association-accredited law school and not previously sat for any other bar exam in another state. They also have to complete 25 hours of continuing legal education and a mentoring program from the Louisiana Bar Association by the end of 2021.

Chief Justice Bernette J. Johnson said, “… We believe that our action today is not only warranted, but necessary during the public health crisis.”

Crain said the state didn’t do away with the bar exam requirements after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He called abandoning the requirement an “incalculable, disservice to the public, our profession, and these otherwise deserving students.” The court’s order said the last time it happened was during the Korean War.

Genovese said there are plenty of other licensed attorneys who can service the public until recent graduates pass the bar. He said there is certainly no shortage or attorneys or any emergency.

Hughes called the decision “an overreaction to the earlier overreaction to the virus that caused the exam to be cancelled.

Madeleine Landrieu, a former appeal court judge and dean of the Loyola University of New Orleans College of Law, said some graduates were likely to fail the exam because they would be grieving coronavirus deaths, fighting racial injustices and have inadequate home environments to prepare for the exam.

Last year, 85.6 percent of the LSU Law School first-time test-takers passed the bar exam. Tulane had 78.6 percent pass, Loyola had 74.8 percent pass and Southern had 64 percent pass.

Louisiana’s law school graduates, like most Americans, are living in an unprecedented pandemic environment, and we believe the court majority’s decision is a fair one.