With coronavirus on the upswing, a group of recent law school graduates say it’s too risky to sit indoors for the Bar exam. They’re asking the Alaska Supreme Court to allow applicants to practice law without taking the two-day proctored test.
“It’s kind of crazy to me that this one exam is being pushed for as if we are in business-as-usual land,” said Elizabeth Carr, a recent graduate of Harvard Law School.
She and seven others who are due to take the exam this year are petitioning the court for an emergency suspension of the testing requirement. They want Alaska to go the way of Louisiana, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Those states have decided that applicants who intended to take bar exams this summer will be admitted to practice law if they graduated from recognized law schools.
Carr wants the Supreme Court to waive the test for first-time applicants with fresh diplomas. Or, the petition says, they should be allowed to take the test remotely. Other states have chosen that route, with some opting for online proctors to ensure the applicant isn’t cheating on the closed-book exam. Carr says using a webcam for that function creates its own problems.
“It’s frankly creepy,” she said. “You have someone assigned to watch you take an exam. You’re not allowed to take your eyes off the screen. You know, if you need to stare into space to think through a problem – which I’ve done on every law school exam I’ve taken – that’s counted against you and you could end up failing the exam because you looked away from the screen.”
The Alaska Bar Association postponed the July exam to September 9-10 and said it will be conducted with strict compliance with all health protocols. At the largest testing location, the Anchorage Sheraton, applicants would be divided into three rooms, each with 25 test-takers plus proctors and administrators.
Carr, 28, said those measures aren’t sufficient, especially because people in their 20s and 30s – the age group of most Bar applicants – is also the group responsible for much of Alaska’s COVID caseload. As an asthmatic who has had pneumonia, she considers herself at high-risk for serious complications, and she said the people she lives with have risk factors, too.
“Just because we’re young doesn’t mean that we’re invincible,” she said. “And it doesn’t mean that the people in our lives, or members of our communities, really deserve to take that risk with us.”
The Bar Association says it can’t comment but will respond to the petition next week.
Meanwhile, the Alaska Supreme Court announced Wednesday that new law school graduates can work as “supervised practitioners.” In that capacity, they can appear in court and advise clients under the wing of another attorney for a year, or until they take the Bar exam.
Carr said it extends the period of limbo for 2020 law grads, leaving them without the earning potential of a full-fledged attorney and still needing to study for an exam that requires a lot of memorization.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
