San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Aspiring attorneys raise objections to test delays
Other aspiring professionals encounter similar career roadblocks
Samuel Humy graduated from Cornell Law School this year and moved to California.
With a job lined up with the Santa Clara County Public Defender Office, he planned to take the California State Bar exam over the summer and start work in early August as a fullfledged lawyer.
Then the coronavirus happened. And the fires.
The State Bar pushed the test normally scheduled in July back to September, then to October as it figured out the software and security issues around a new online format for the hourslong exam, which normally involves test takers crammed into conference rooms.
Humy and his partner, who is also taking the bar, found a place in Santa Cruz to study, but the CZU Lightning Complex fires forced them to evacuate.
“The bar is a stressful test,” without having to worry about a pandemic, fires and an untested online format, Humy said.
Plenty of other wouldbe lawyers around California are also unsettled.
Results from the July bar exams normally come out in midNovember, at which time law students who do not pass can begin studying for the February exams, according to Daniel Schweitzer, a longtime bar exam tutor.
With results from the delayed October test not slated to come out until midJanuary, there will be almost no time for students who fail to begin studying for the February test unless it too gets delayed.
“Pushing the results back delays when people can start their career,” Schweitzer said.
Some people, including Humy, believe that California should allow law graduates to work without passing the bar, given the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic.
Several other states have granted the privilege this year. The California State
“Pushing the results back delays when people can start their career.”
Daniel Schweitzer, bar exam tutor
Bar said it is working on a provisional licensing program at the direction of the state Supreme Court, which would allow this year’s graduates to postpone taking the bar exam and begin practicing law under supervision.
There is no firm timeline for when that would happen, however. Public comment on a draft rule wrapped up last week, and a plan still would need to be approved by the State Bar Board of Trustees and adopted by the California Supreme Court.
The nature of the online bar exam has also raised some concerns.
The American Civil Liberties Union of California sent a letter to the California Supreme Court which oversees the bar, voicing concerns about plans to collect biometric data from test takers to use facial recognition software during the test.
“Facial recognition has been repeatedly demonstrated to be less accurate when used to identify Black people, people of Asian descent, and women,” the ACLU wrote, adding that using the technology would “further entrench racial and economic inequities that have long created barriers to the legal profession.”
Nonprofit groups recently filed a lawsuit against the State Bar in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of test takers who require accommodations being forced to take the test in person, putting them at what they say is increased risk of contracting the virus.
Test takers who are unable to stay in front of a computer camera for the duration of each test section, those needing a paper exam, or physical “scratch” paper, or people who use screenreading software are required to take the test in person, according to the lawsuit filed by the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund and Legal Aid at Work.
“There is no unlawful discrimination in the administration of the October bar examination,” Donna Hershkowitz, State Bar of California interim executive director, said in a statement in response to the lawsuit. “The COVID19 protocols that will be in place for inperson administration of the bar exam for both disabled and nondisabled testtakers follow national and state public health guidelines to minimize the risk of infection spread during this unprecedented pandemic,” she added.
Some law school deans penned a letter asking the test be open book because of concerns about how remote proctoring will work, potential technical difficulties, and the increased stress they said a remote exam will cause.
For test takers like Jenny Lai studying for the bar, canceled and delayed tests mean more time to study but also worry about life afterward. She and her family also had to evacuate their home in Morgan Hill because of the SCU Lightning Complex fires while she was studying for the exam.
“I was very worried my standing offer was no longer on the table,” said Lai, who has worked at a small litigation firm as a legal assistant for years and has an offer to begin work as an attorney once she passes the test. She still has an offer but doesn’t know how long it will stand if the test is delayed again.
It’s not just lawyers who must adapt to major changes in licensing tests. Across the state, engineers, doctors, CPAs and other professionals in training are seeing the tests that could determine their futures and earnings potentials delayed or moved online.
In the case of some engineers, a professional test has even been moved out of state.
The Principles and Practice of Engineering Examination, one of the requirements to become a licensed engineer in California, normally takes place in April.
The test has to be done in person since the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, which administers the test nationally, said remote proctoring is not currently possible. “We are studying the possibility for the future when technology is better able to provide a higher level of exam security and a more consistent experience for examinees,” Nina Norris, the council’s chief communications officer, said in an email.
In early August, the council said the test would take place in California in October. But about three weeks later, it said the state’s limits on group gatherings would make it necessary to move the test across the border to the Silver Legacy Resort in Reno.
“I don’t see how magically driving over state lines is going to make it safe,” said Dominic Gutierrez, an engineer for the California Department of Water Resources, who had planned to take the test. Passing would make him eligible for a significant annual pay increase in his current job, he said.
“There’s been so much uncertainty in their messaging that it’s made studying difficult,” he said.
Gutierrez said he is not willing to drive to Nevada from his home in Sacramento to take the test “in who knows what kind of conditions” because a family member who is immunocompromised could be more vulnerable to the effects of the virus if he were to catch it.
Asked about accommodations for those who can’t travel, Norris said the council has added another exam date in January in Pomona (Los Angeles County). She said the council had delayed moving the test out of state in the hopes California would relax restrictions, and that Nevada’s looser restrictions lowered the risk of another cancellation.
California’s Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the licensing of engineers and many other professions statewide, has reopened some testing centers closed in March because of the pandemic, said department spokeswoman Michelle Cave.
Prospective doctors and surgeons have also seen testing requirements shift.
In May, the United States Medical Licensing Examination, an organization that administers medical tests, suspended a step in its clinical skills exam — namely, an inperson test that requires students to interview patients and perform physical exams.
This month the organization began administering the test again at some medical schools around the country, but it is still suspended in locations with virus restrictions in place.
People can now get a training license without this step, although it’s still not possible to get a physician’s or surgeon’s license without it, according to Carlos Villatoro, a spokesman with the Medical Board of California, which oversees licensing applications.