Of the 10 law schools that in 2020 received noncompliance notices for having two-year bar passage rates below 75%, half appear to again have pass rates that do not meet that threshold, according to ABA data released in April.
When the State Bar of California selected ExamSoft as the software provider for its October 2020 remote bar exam, the test was administered appropriately, but the bar did not follow a procurement policy for outside vendors, according to a state auditor report.
The New York State Board of Law Examiners has sovereign immunity from a lawsuit claim by a Harvard Law School graduate who sued over failure to accommodate her anxiety-related disability, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Despite the coronavirus chaos around July 2020 bar exams—including health fears for in-person bars, software problems with remote tests and jurisdictions making last-minute date and format changes—the first-time pass rate actually increased from the previous year.
Rhode Island has followed California’s lead in lowering the bar exam cut score to make the test easier to pass, a step that several other states are also considering.
Happy anniversary. It’s been about one year now since the world was introduced to the coronavirus pandemic. What else can we say? This is as good a time as any to reflect on the changes to the world, especially to the world of law.
Of the 10 law schools that did not meet an accreditation standard in the summer of 2020 requiring a 75% bar passage rate, six have now demonstrated that they are in compliance.
Following Texas’ freezing February weather, which led to power outages, disrupted water service and more than 20 deaths, according to CNN, the Texas Board of Law Examiners announced Friday that it would offer a makeup bar exam in March in addition to the test that starts Tuesday.
The right of bar examinees to bring tampons and pads with them was addressed in a measure overwhelmingly approved by the House of Delegates at the ABA Midyear Meeting on Monday.
The use of facial recognition technology with the remote bar exam could have an unlawful disparate impact on test-takers who are women or people of color, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law wrote in a Feb. 10 demand letter, which was sent to the State Bar of California.
Most jurisdictions saw bar exam pass rates increase in 2020, regardless of whether they had in-person or online exams. However, in three states that offered both types of exams, online test-takers didn’t do as well.
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