The 2026 examination for lawyers without more facilities

The holding of the next examination to become a lawyer plunges into uncertainty. Because the Milleproroghe decree has not established this time, unlike other years, the preservation of the methods introduced in the Covid phase, one written and three oral. Now to be revived could be the system envisaged by the forensic order with Law 247 of 2012, with the provision of three written tests and one oral. Unless the compass may become, as would perhaps be more logical, what is already established in the draft enabling act under discussion in Parliament with an articulation in two written tests and one oral.

In short, a confusion that does not help a profession that has seen a drastic contraction in the number of candidates in recent years: between 2019 and 2023 the number of participants in the State examinations more than halved, from over 22 thousand to less than 10 thousand. The negative peak, so far, was reached in the 2023 session, in which 9,703 aspiring lawyers took part, but in 2024 the trend reversed slightly, with 10,316 aspiring lawyers. In the latest session, which is still in progress with the correction of the written tests, the first surveys indicate a further progression with 11,164 candidates.

Until 2019, the examination followed the traditional model, with three written tests (one act and two opinions) and one oral test. For the 2020 session, two oral tests were introduced in order to comply with the limits imposed by the pandemic; this system was then confirmed in 2021 and 2022. For the 2023 session, the Ministry of Justice has turned to a new model: a written test (one act) and an oral test in three stages (examination and discussion of a practical-applicative question; discussion on three subjects; examination on the legal system and the rights and duties of lawyers).

Aiga in recent days had forcefully advanced the need for an extension of the latter system, contesting the denial as "a short-sighted choice that ignores the legitimate expectations of thousands of pratic lawyers and professionals", worsening a picture already marked by repeated regulatory interventions. For the Young Lawyers Association, the decision not to extend the rules adopted in recent years entails "the umpteenth distortion of the path of access to the profession", fuelling uncertainty as to how the next test will be conducted.

In the meantime, the ministry of Justice is emphasised that it would be wrong to continue to anchor itself to a selection mechanism launched under very special conditions, when today the emergency has ceased; then, however, the lawyers are invited to formulate a concrete and unified proposal, declaring their utmost willingness to translate its contents also into a law decree to guarantee the holding of the next session.