State Bar Tells California Supreme Court: Delay Or Cancel July Bar Exam

Bloomberg Law, California Bar Trustees Advise July Exam Be Delayed, or Scrapped:

California’s main bar exam should be paused until September or provisional diploma privileges should be granted to law graduates, the California Bar’s Board of Trustees recommended.

The options were presented Tuesday to the state supreme court at a meeting about the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on law students facing jarring, last-minute uncertainties about credentials needed to begin their careers. A decision is expected later this month.

The trustees suggested a delay of the main bar exam from July 28-29 until Sept. 9-10, with options to hold it in-person or online. The so-called “baby bar” for students from schools not accredited by the bar, would be held online on its currently scheduled date of June 23.

Under a second scenario, both bars would be canceled with an option for the court to grant some type of “emergency diploma privilege” to allow law school graduates to begin practicing without first clearing test hurdles.

The board recommended that the court may wish to ask the state bar to convene a working group, which, according to a bar spokeswoman, would study “a provisional certification program for eligible individuals who have satisfied all requirements for admission other than passage of the bar exam.” They would work under the supervision of a licensed California attorney.

The Recorder, Postpone July Bar Exam or Cancel It, State Bar Tells Calif. Supreme Court

TaxProf Blog coverage of the July 2020 bar exam:

• The Bar Exam And The COVID-19 Pandemic: The Need For Immediate Action (Mar. 14, 2020)
• NCBE To Decide By May 5 Whether It Will Provide MBE For July Bar Examinations (Mar. 27, 2020)
• New York Postpones July Bar Exam To Fall; Students Demand Emergency Diploma Privilege To Practice Law (Mar. 28, 2020)
• Massachusetts Joins New York In Postponing July Bar Exam (Mar. 30, 2020)
• Connecticut Is Third State To Postpone July Bar Exam (Mar. 31, 2020)
• Hawaii Is Fourth State To Postpone July Bar Exam (Apr. 2, 2020)
• New Jersey Is Fifth State To Postpone July Bar Exam, First To Offer 2020 Law Grads Temporary License To Practice (Apr. 7, 2020)
• July Bar Exam Update: ABA, Arizona, California, Florida, Tennessee, Vermont (Apr. 8, 2020)
• Indiana Allows 2020 Law Grads To Serve As Graduate Legal Interns And Take February 2021 Bar Exam (Apr. 9, 2020)
• Utah To Let Grads Skip Bar Exam Due To COVID-19, But Only From Schools With 86%+ Bar Pass Rate; Grads Of Just 4 Of California's 21 Law Schools Would Qualify (Apr. 11, 2020)
• Licensing Lawyers In A Pandemic: Proving Competence (Apr. 12, 2020)
• Even In Time Of Crisis, Hold Fast To Bar Exam (Apr. 13, 2020)
• Bar Exam Federalism During The COVID-19 Pandemic (Apr. 14, 2020)

For complete TaxProf Blog coverage of the coronavirus, see here.