With bar exams learning that at least one examinee has since tested positive for COVID, the fig leaf protections examiners implemented from spot temperature checks to signed statements have been exposed. People can have this virus without realizing it for days and that’s exactly how it ported itself into the test site.
With these dangerous exercises behind us and more looming in a few months, the push to inject common sense into the process has intensified on all fronts.
The Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Board of Governors adopted the recommendations of a task force report urging the state supreme court to adopt diploma privilege for people who graduated between April 1 and June 30, 2020. At a time when even concerned authorities are more comfortable with half-measures like online exams, Pennsylvania’s professional leaders see that as just another disaster waiting to happen.
Moreover even those with ideal home conditions will be at the whim of a storm, accident, or equipment failure that causes a loss of power during the exam. Neither public health officials nor the medical community at large can give reliable prediction of where Pennsylvania or the country will be in October 2020 as it relates to the pandemic. A diploma privilege would provide some certainty to the recent law school graduates who are trying to enter the at the most uncertain time in the history of the bar exam. While a diploma privilege does sacrifice the testing of graduates, the majority of people who take the Pennsylvania Bar Exam for the first time in July pass the test (The first-time pass rate for the July exam each of the past three years was 80%). Many of those who do not pass the bar exam the first time do successfully pass the bar exam during a subsequent test — often on the second try.
Check out the full task force report here.
Meanwhile, across the river in New Jersey, the Rutgers Law School faculty have issued a strong statement advocating for diploma privilege.
In normal times, the bar examination is a stressful professional event, perhaps the most stressful professional event that a law graduate faces prior to embarking upon the practice of law. This year that anxiety has been increased exponentially. The cost this year to the newest members of our field outweighs the benefit the bar examination normally provides in proving a candidate’s mettle to practice law. The time has come for New Jersey to join other states in turning to more a humane response to what this year has become a protracted, costly, and painful professional examination process— one that is disproportionately affecting women candidates and candidates of color.