I - they have a couple of new risk factors. JOCELYN TELLEZ-AMADO: So both of my parents, you know, have diabetes. California plans to kick test-takers out of their online bar exam if they lose their connection for longer than 10 minutes - and won't allow them to complete it.īut the online option looks good to Jocelyn Tellez-Amado in Tucson. And some test-takers have their own worries, like access to a computer with a good Internet connection. Some states are reluctant to administer the bar online over concerns about monitoring it for cheaters. GILES: Croucher is currently on her first week on the job as a public defender, a job she took with the understanding she'd only have limited responsibilities until she passed the bar. And I was willing to die to take this test, which I think says a lot about how much this exam means and how it - your entire career depends on this moment. Then Kentucky canceled its bar and became one of a handful of states that have turned to digital tests as an alternative.ĮMILY CROUCHER: I am high-risk for COVID. After graduating from UC Irvine, she'd moved across the country to pursue her dream job and spent 400 hours studying for Kentucky's bar exam in July. GILES: In Kentucky, Emily Croucher was ready to take that risk. But if they require applicants to take the bar in person, Cunningham says she has no choice but to take it.ĬUNNINGHAM: People who are making the choice to have an in-person bar exam are having applicants choose between licensure or exposure to a deadly disease that has lifelong consequences if you - even if you recover from it. GILES: It's unclear what New York will do next. These are people who have already sat through three years of law school, who have often taken smaller licensure exams and passed those exams.

It's an option Cunningham wishes New York offered.ĬUNNINGHAM: So we're not talking about just any old person can come up and become a lawyer. GILES: Some states, like Oregon, Washington and Utah, are allowing recent law school grads to be licensed without sitting for the bar if they earned diplomas from schools certified by the American Bar Association. MARY KATE CUNNINGHAM: I have to have my bar license.

Ben Giles of member station KJZZ in Phoenix reports.īEN GILES, BYLINE: Fordham University law school graduate Mary Kate Cunningham has a job lined up defending social workers in New York City Family Court - or at least she did before New York canceled its bar exam after initially delaying it for a couple of months. But this year, because of concerns about the coronavirus, more than half of states have delayed or canceled their bar exams, leaving many law school graduates in limbo. The exams are usually taken in big groups.

That's the test that aspiring lawyers have to pass in order to be allowed to practice. July is the month when most states administer their bar exams.

Limbo bar.