Law Schools

New York BOLE Reaffirms Its Commitment To Screw Repeat Bar Exam Candidates

They are literally excluding the most marginalized groups of test-takers, and they aren’t telling us why. 

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If you haven’t been following the saga that is the New York bar exam situation, you can catch up here. To give you the 30-second summary: COVID-19 → New York bar exam postponed until September → Seats limited to first-time takers who went to law school in New York → Everyone else becomes angry → NY BOLE basically says “We’ll get back to you” → Three weeks pass, which brings us to the present. 

Yesterday, the New York Board of Law Examiners (NY BOLE) opened up a second application period for the September 2020 New York Bar Exam.  According to the NY BOLE website: 

A second application period will be open from June 2 through June 12. Beginning on Tuesday, June 2 at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time, applications will be accepted from any candidate who graduated with a J.D. degree from an ABA-accredited law school located outside of New York, and who has not previously sat for a bar exam in any U.S. jurisdiction. The application period will close on Friday, June 12 at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time. Please note that, at this time, seating cannot be guaranteed to candidates who register during this application period.

Before, in the old days of last month, I gave the NY BOLE the benefit of the doubt. The situation with COVID-19 was rapidly changing and they needed to make decisions quickly. It is fully possible that they hadn’t thought their decisions all the way through and that they would realize the damage they were doing by excluding repeat takers from taking the bar exam and come up with a solution. 

But, this has been going on for months now. And, the time has come to start preparing for the September bar exam. So, they are literally running out of time to fix this. 

I, for one, would love to know their reasons for categorically excluding repeat takers  (and foreign-educated attorneys who are only allowed to sit for the bar exam in a handful of jurisdictions). What makes first-time takers from New York law schools more deserving of a seat? What makes first-time takers from out-of-state law schools more worthy? What factored into these decisions? 

Have they considered that minority students statistically fail the bar exam at higher rates? And that this rule, as applied, is having a disparate impact based on race? Is this a gross oversight or an intentional decision? We don’t know because they’ve said nothing. They have given no explanation or reasoning for the prioritization of first-time takers. However, they are literally excluding the most marginalized groups of test-takers, and they aren’t telling us why. 

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My frustration with this situation is apparent, but also irrelevant as this problem doesn’t actually affect me. So, I talked to two people who are being directly affected and got their thoughts on the situation. 

Danney Salvatierra and Felicia Roman are two law graduates who were both hoping to retake the bar exam in New York this year. Both Danney and Felicia informed me that they are experiencing increased anxiety as a result of the NY BOLE’s decision to exclude them from taking the bar exam. Felicia spoke to me about the increased financial burden being placed on her to sit for the exam in another jurisdiction, and Danney expressed concern about having to travel to another jurisdiction amid COVID-19. 

When asked what message they felt the NY BOLE was currently sending to repeat takers, Danney responded “that we are not that important to the legal community. They’re making us feel invisible.” Felicia said that “the message I think the NY BOLE is sending with this new policy is that repeat takers DO NOT matter and that we are not good enough to even consider us in this policy. It is sending a very debilitating message to repeat takers and has the potential of causing major insecurities within us.”

I’d like to thank both Danney and Felicia for publicly sharing their stories. They are giving a face and a voice to the thousands of people being impacted by this situation. It can be easy to ignore numbers on a page as just statistics. But, these are real people, whose real lives and careers are being negatively impacted by the decision of the NY BOLE to exclude repeat takers from the September bar exam. 

What remains evident to me is that this current situation is unacceptable, and the NY BOLE needs to either administer the bar exam online or find enough seats to offer the test to every qualified applicant in person. Period.

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Kerriann Stout is a millennial law school professor and founder of Vinco (a bar exam coaching company) who is generationally trapped between her students and colleagues. Kerriann has helped hundreds of students survive law school and the bar exam with less stress and more confidence. She lives, works, and writes in the northeast. You can reach her by email at [email protected].

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