Editing Lawyer (section)

===Earning the right to practice law===
{{Main|Admission to practice law}}
[[File:Clara Shortridge Foltz.jpg|thumb|[[Clara Shortridge Foltz]], admitted to the California Bar through an examination before attending law school|left]]

Some jurisdictions grant a "[[diploma privilege]]" to certain institutions, so that merely earning a degree or credential from those institutions is the primary qualification for practicing law.<ref name="Abel_AmLaw_62">Abel, ''American Lawyers'', 62.</ref> [[Mexico]] allows anyone with a law degree to practice law.<ref name="Lopez-Ayllon, 330">Lopez-Ayllon, 330.</ref> However, in a large number of countries, a law student must pass a [[bar examination]] (or a series of such examinations) before receiving a license to practice.<ref name="Abel_AmLaw_62"/><ref>Hazard, 127, 129, & 133; Miller, 335–341.</ref><ref>Alan A. Paterson, "The Legal Profession in Scotland: An Endangered Species or a Problem Case for Market Theory?" in ''Lawyers in Society: The Common Law World'', vol. 1, eds. Richard L. Abel and Philip S.C. Lewis, 76–122 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 89.</ref>

Some countries require a formal apprenticeship with an experienced practitioner, while others do not.<ref>Hazard, 129 & 133.</ref> A few jurisdictions still allow an apprenticeship in place of any kind of formal legal education, though the number of persons who actually become lawyers that way is increasingly rare.<ref>Weisbrot, 266.</ref>