For aspiring lawyers, the bar exam has long stood as the gatekeeper — a two-day ordeal that measures memorization and time-pressured writing but largely ignores the real-world skills involved in representing clients. For successful bar examinees, those skills come later.
That state of affairs is changing. In October 2025, the Utah Supreme Court approved Supreme Court Rule of Professional Practice 14-703A, creating an alternate path to attorney licensure that rewards demonstrated practical lawyering skills rather prowess at standardized testing. Utah joins Oregon, Washington, New Hampshire, and — with narrower eligibility — Arizona in offering experiential routes to a law license.
A deposition is where classroom theory collides with the reality of representing clients.
Among the skills these programs aim to develop and measure, few carry more weight than the ability to take and defend depositions.
Utah’s Alternate Path
The Utah Supreme Court adopted Rule 14-703A on Sept. 24, 2025. Applications opened Jan. 1, 2026, for the initial class of alternate path licensees. The alternate path is a second track to bar admission in Utah. It’s not a replacement for the Uniform Bar Exam, but a parallel path grounded in supervised practice.
Candidates pursuing the alternate path must:
Graduate from an ABA-accredited law school within the previous five years
- Complete specified skills-based coursework during law school or post-graduation
- Accumulate 240 hours of supervised legal practice under the guidance of a qualified Utah attorney
- Pass a written performance exam developed for the alternate pathway program
- Complete pro bono work as part of the supervised hours
- Satisfy character and fitness requirements
The rule draws directly from the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System’s Building a Better Bar report, which identified 12 “building blocks” of minimum legal competence. Among them: interacting effectively with clients, identifying legal issues, conducting research, communicating as a lawyer, and seeing the “big picture” of client matters. Deposition practice all of these essential legal competence skills.
Depositions Measure Lawyer Competence
A deposition is where classroom theory collides with the reality of representing clients. Taking or defending a deposition exercises nearly every skill possessed by successful litigators:
- Listening and responsive questioning. The best deposers do not read from a script. They listen for openings, contradictions, and unexpected admissions, then follow the thread.
- Strategic thinking. Each question should advance a theory of the case. Wandering depositions waste client money and give witnesses time to regroup.
- Procedural mastery. Rule 30 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, state equivalents, objection protocols, and the rules governing scope all come into play in real time.
- Written preparation. Creating a workable deposition outline requires the attorney to (a) possess a thorough knowledge of the case file, (b) formulate a chronology of key events, (c) identify and mark exhibits, and (d) assemble impeachment material for cross-examination.
- Client and witness management. Preparing a client to testify — or cross-examining an adverse witness — demands interpersonal skill a standardized exam cannot measure.
- Stress management. Depositions test a litigator’s ability to keep calm under pressure, maintain discipline and focus on deposition objectives, improvise when necessary, and keep the entire process moving forward.
Our earlier article on honing young lawyers’ deposition skills captures another salient point: “The best deposers are the best listeners.” Multiple-choice questions cannot measure that.
How the Other States Compare
Each of the leading alternate pathway programs weighs practical skills differently, but all build in some version of supervised client work or litigation experience.
Oregon — Supervised Practice Portfolio Examination (SPPE). The Oregon Supreme Court approved the SPPE in November 2023, and applications opened May 15, 2024. Candidates must complete 675 hours of paid legal work under a supervising Oregon attorney, submit at least eight writing samples, take the lead in at least two initial client interviews or counseling sessions, and lead at least two negotiations. The portfolio goes to the Oregon State Board of Bar Examiners for grading. Deposition work qualifies as supervised practice. The Oregon State Bar continues to offer the traditional bar exam alongside the SPPE.
Washington — Multi-Pathway Model. The Washington Supreme Court adopted three alternate pathways in concept on March 15, 2024. Law school graduates can complete a six-month apprenticeship with three standardized courses. Law students can complete 500 hours of work as licensed legal interns plus 12 qualifying skills credits and a portfolio. Implementation is targeted for 2027. Washington will move from the current Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) to the recently developed NextGen Bar Exam beginning July 2026.
New Hampshire — Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program. The oldest alternate pathway program in the country. Operating at the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law since 2008, the program embeds bar-style assessment into a two-year skills-intensive curriculum. Scholars appear before judges, conduct simulated negotiations, prepare written and oral portfolios, and receive admission to the New Hampshire bar the day before graduation. A 2015 IAALS study found Webster Scholars outperformed colleagues who had been licensed for up to two years.
Arizona — Lawyer Apprentice Program (ALAP). Arizona’s program, launched Sept. 1, 2024, works differently from the others. ALAP does not replace the bar exam. Instead, it targets candidates who score between 260 and 269 on the UBE — within ten points of Arizona’s 270 passing score. Candidates may practice under supervision for two years in rural areas, government offices, or nonprofits, then transition to a full license.
The Building Blocks Map to Deposition Work
Translated to deposition practice, the IAALS competence framework maps cleanly onto what a lawyer actually does before, during, and after a deposition:
| IAALS Building Block | Deposition Skill Demonstrated |
|---|---|
| Identify Legal Issues | Drafting an outline keyed to elements of claims and defenses |
| Conduct Research | Locating and organizing impeaching documents and prior testimony |
| Interact Effectively with Clients | Preparing a client or fact witness to testify |
| Communicate as a lawyer | Asking clear, admissible questions under time pressure |
Supervising attorneys who sign off on a candidate’s supervised practice hours are asked, in effect, to attest that the candidate can do these things.
From the perspective of bar applicants, skills-based licensure favors students with access to a meaningful clerkship or clinical placement. It works less well for graduates heading to markets where portable licensure matters, because alternate path credentials do not currently transfer to other states.
This summer the NextGen Bar Exam will be offered in several jurisdictions and will address some of the criticisms of the UBE. Notwithstanding the continued reliance on the UBE in many states, the trend among bar regulators seems clear: Competence to practice is increasingly measured by what candidates can do, not by what they can recall. Skill in taking and defending depositions — always valued by litigators — may soon be one of the key professional competencies required to obtain a law license in the first place.
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