After heart attack during New York bar exam, state board of law examiners gathers info about incident
Last week, during the second day of the bar exam, a candidate taking the test at a sports arena rented from Hofstra University collapsed, falling out of her chair shortly before the lunch break, according to a statement from the New York State Board of Law Examiners.
Test proctors didn’t pause the exam while the woman struggled, and the clock kept ticking for other candidates, according to reports from Law.com.
Staff came to the test-taker’s aid, and when the morning portion of the exam ended, “the proctors collected the exams and the candidates were dismissed from the room so that EMTs could provide the needed medical care to the candidate. That session concluded as our staff was obtaining medical aid for the candidate,” the New York State Board of Law Examiners’ statement reads.
The agency is now gathering information about the incident, including which candidates may have been impacted, and “it will carefully review the information and will formulate an appropriate response in due course,” the statement says.
According to a statement from Hofstra University, its public safety officers “immediately provided lifesaving emergency care, including CPR and defibrillation” to the woman. Local emergency services transported her to the hospital.
She graduated from Fordham Law School.
“We were saddened to learn of what happened to one of our graduates during the New York bar exam and have been in touch with the family to monitor the graduate’s health. Our thoughts are with the graduate and the family, and out of respect for their privacy, we do not have any further comment,” Joseph Landau, dean of Fordham Law School, said in a statement.
The bar exam resumed after the lunch break, according to Law.com.
New York is a Uniform Bar Exam state. The test is developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and administered by the state board of law examiners. Requirements from the NCBE and the board of bar examiners determine proctors’ duties, according to John J. McAlary, executive director of the New York State Board of Law Examiners.
No NCBE staff were physically present at any New York test site, Sophie Martin, the NCBE’s communications director, told the ABA Journal. An NCBE’s supervisors’ manual covers how to administer the test, with suggestions about balancing exam security policies when faced with an emergency.
“We have listed the priorities that we believe should be top of mind in an emergency situation, the first of which is to protect the examinees and staff,” Martin explains.
The manual includes having a special announcement ready for proctors to read in case of an emergency, such as telling candidates to stop working on the test and/or moving locations. But how specific situations are handled is ultimately determined by the states, according to Martin.
“The jurisdiction decides whether to pause or stop the clock based on the specific circumstances at the time,” she adds.
“What happens during an emergency would be on us,” says McAlary, a former chair of the NCBE’s board of trustees.
He adds it’s not uncommon for a candidate to fall ill during the New York bar exam, but “this was the most serious case we have had.”
New York tests the most bar candidates of any jurisdiction, with 10,392 test-takers sat for the New York bar in July 2024, according to the NCBE.
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