CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A University of New Hampshire School of Law professor is being honored by the bar association as the director of a program that allows scholars to skip the two-day bar exam through hands-on practice of law before they graduate.
Attorney John Garvey, director of the law school’s Daniel Webster Scholars Honors Program, is receiving the New Hampshire Bar Association’s 2015 Distinguished Service to the Legal Profession Award.
Garvey developed the unique program that permits qualified scholars to be trained and evaluated over a two-year period.
Denver University’s Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System in a 30-page report this spring said the program is “ahead of the curve in graduating new lawyers” and called it a model for other law schools.
“The success of the program lies in the fact that students are actually better prepared for the practice of law,” the report stated. “Beginning in the second year of law school, students are immersed in experience-based learning settings and Garvey is credited with much of its success.”
Attorney Lisa Wellman-Ally, outgoing bar association president, said Garvey’s “hard work, infectious energy and collaborative spirit have led New Hampshire to the forefront of the evolution of legal education.”
The program this month is also receiving the American Bar Association’s Gambrell Professionalism Award.
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