Virginia isn’t the worst off of any state right now, but COVID infection rates have crept up over the past couple of weeks as America continues its nationwide backslide into the pandemic. And yet Virginia remained one of the astoundingly non-zero number of states insisting on an in-person bar exam this month over every bit of public health advice.
But fear not, the state bar examiners have now heard the calls of applicants, doctors, and law school faculty and decided to cancel… the requirement that men wear ties to the exam.
Here is the real Virginia Board of Law Examiners bar exam dress code.
The part that is most offensive is the lack of Oxford comma (after "skirt and jacket").https://t.co/Ex87JXSPpJ pic.twitter.com/3tJ9gliEOo
— Zach Wolfe (@zachwolfelaw) July 5, 2020
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Because COVID causes pulmonary issues and we don’t want infected applicants struggling with a tie to gasp for air.
The bar exam as a concept is little more than professional cosplay for these people. It is not, in fact, a courtroom or an office or a client meeting. It is not demonstrably useful in protecting the public because it, by design, fails to test applicants on the actual subject material relevant to their future practices (unlike, say, a series of practice area competency exams people could opt into to earn narrowly tailored certificates). It’s just a game where they make applicants dress up and play law school trivia.
And unfortunately when the bankruptcy of this endeavor is finally lined up against real human impacts, states are choosing the charade over public health time after time.
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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.