ABA Journal

Bar Exam

539 ABA Journal Bar Exam articles.

New York bar exam planned for September; Hawaii postpones exam, too

The New York Court of Appeals announced Tuesday that the bar exam will take place shortly before or after the Labor Day holiday. Also, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore is looking into supervised practice for law school graduates.

Three states postpone July bar exam; will others follow?

July bar exams in New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut will be rescheduled, for the fall. They are the first jurisdictions to reschedule bar exams due to the coronavirus pandemic, and specific dates have not been scheduled yet.

Decision about releasing July bar exam materials will come in May, NCBE says

The National Conference of Bar Examiners, which develops and produces the attorney licensing tests used by most U.S. jurisdictions, will announce in early May whether its tests will be released for the July bar exam.

BarBri bar exam prep options will soon include streamed, real-time lectures

Whether the July bar exam will actually take place as traditionally scheduled is unknown, but starting in May, anyone who wants to study for it has the option of watching livestreamed BarBri lectures with moderated questions and answers.

What alternatives to the July bar exam are being considered in light of COVID-19?

Given that COVID-19 restrictions prohibit large gatherings for the foreseeable future, administration of the July 2020 bar exam seems unlikely, according to a working paper released Sunday by a group of legal academics. It calls for states to consider diploma privilege for 2020 law school graduates, as well as supervised practice.

March LSAT canceled and National Conference of Bar Examiners monitoring July bar exam

In light of the coronavirus, the March Law School Admission Test has been canceled.

Ethics and civil procedure are most important knowledge areas for new lawyers, survey says

A survey of nearly 15,000 lawyers sought to determine what knowledge, skills and abilities are needed by newly licensed attorneys.

Bar applicant with extreme school debt can sit for the bar, Ohio Supreme Court says

Cynthia Marie Rodgers, the Capital University School of Law graduate who got dinged on her Ohio character and fitness application for having almost $900,000 in school debt—and seemingly no clear…

New York removes mental health question from state bar application

Bar applicants in New York will no longer have to answer questions about mental health conditions or treatment history as a result of action by the state’s court system.

Law schools see an increase in bar passage rates, new ABA data shows

The bar passage rate for first-time test-takers has increased by nearly 5 percentage points, according to data released Monday by the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.

California may offer more opportunities for JDs taught entirely online

If people are open to attending a non-ABA-accredited law school, they may soon have a lot more online choices in California—thanks to a recent rule change by the State Bar of California allowing state-accredited law schools to teach JD programs entirely over the internet.

Tech company accused of bar-exam grading glitch has no liability in test-takers’ suit, 11th Circuit says

Law grads who were wrongly told that they failed the Georgia bar exam can’t recover damages against the software company they accused of producing the incorrect scores, a federal appeals court has ruled.

A better bar exam? Law profs weigh in on whether test accurately measures skills required for law practice

Some lawyers say that little has changed with bar exams nationwide, and there are still concerns about whether the test accurately evaluates skills needed to practice law. Others have argued that today’s technology could handle many methods of bar exam testing than seemed impossible in 1980.

Law schools with accreditation issues see bar exam improvement, but will they hit 75% pass rate?

For a small number of schools found to be out of compliance with an ABA accreditation admissions standard, some have concerns that even with bar pass rate improvements, they still may not meet a new standard that requires pass rates of at least 75% for graduates who took a bar exam in the past two years.

Prosecutors allege law grad who failed bar exam created law firms in name of classmate

A Stetson University law graduate who failed the bar exam twice has agreed to plead guilty to mail fraud and aggravated identity theft after prosecutors accused her of creating fictitious law firms and representing clients.

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