ABA Journal

Bar Exam

549 ABA Journal Bar Exam articles.

Will paper bar exams become a thing of the past?

While there’s significant disagreement on how the bar exam should change, many believe it will, and there’s a wide range of ideas about what should happen.

Top 10 stories of 2020

When we look back at our most-read stories every year, there is usually a pretty eclectic mix. Our readers tend to like unusual headlines, lawyer discipline stories and legal education news. But this year’s most-read stories were fittingly more serious.

Thousands of California bar exam takers have video files flagged for review

More than 3,000 people who sat for the State Bar of California’s remote October exam had their proctoring videos flagged for review, and dozens report receiving violation notices from the agency’s office of admissions.

Higher pass rate but smaller pool for New York’s online bar exam

New York’s bar exam, administered online in October, had an overall pass rate of 84%.

According to a news release from the New York Board of Law Examiners, 5,150…

Jurisdictions with COVID-19-related diploma privilege are going back to bar exam admissions

As of Dec. 3, the five jurisdictions with emergency diploma privilege precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic had announced plans for a remote bar exam in February 2021. None of the jurisdictions has yet released plans for July 2021 admissions, but law school deans in those regions are telling third-year students to plan for a bar exam.

After being told they passed the bar, a group of Kentucky applicants find out otherwise

Because of an administrative error, 15 Kentucky bar applicants were incorrectly told that they passed the October remote bar exam.

Afternoon Briefs: Good news for law grad who took bar exam while in labor; Boies Schiller leader leaves

Law grad passes bar exam after taking the test while in labor

A graduate of the Loyola University Chicago School of Law has passed the bar exam, even though she…

Pandemic problems may be defense for law schools not meeting bar passage standard

Law schools now must report the number of recent graduates admitted by diploma privilege in their annual questionnaires in addition to those who took and passed a bar exam.

Law grad who flunked bar exam gets prison time for creating law firms and practicing law

A 2014 graduate of the Stetson University College of Law was sentenced to prison time Wednesday for practicing law even though she flunked the bar exam twice.

Afternoon Briefs: Latham will pay fall bonuses; Reagan shooter may display artwork, judge rules

Latham will pay fall bonuses, donate $1M to fight hunger

Latham & Watkins has announced that it will pay fall bonuses ranging from $7,500 to $40,000—the market scale for law…

New study suggests cutting bar exam multiple choice questions or making them open book

Bar exams should use multiple choice questions sparingly, if at all, replace essay questions with performance tests, and require supervised clinical work for licensure, according to a study focused on minimum competency to practice law by the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System.

Afternoon Briefs: Trump faces suit over rape denial; Biden opposes SCOTUS term limits

Trump can be personally sued over rape denial

A federal judge in Manhattan on Tuesday refused to substitute the federal government as the defendant in a defamation suit filed against…

Amid claims that online bar exam went well, some test-takers have a different view

ExamSoft, the company that provided the software for the two-day online bar exam offered earlier this month, maintains that only a small percentage of test-takers experienced problems with their product. But for those who did, many say there should have been no issues and some suspect the hitches were expected by the company.

Law school dean ‘devastated’ about flubbed email with bar exam grades

William C. Hubbard, the new dean of the University of South Carolina School of Law and a former ABA president, accidentally emailed students a file with recent graduates’ confidential bar exam grades and information about whether they passed or failed the test.

Woman goes into labor during bar exam and finishes the test

A recent graduate of the Loyola University Chicago School of Law was determined to finish the bar exam, despite going into labor during the remote test.

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