Law Schools

Hey, Law School Students! State Offering $18/Hour To Sit In The Middle Of COVID Superspreader Event!

Unsatisfied with just putting graduates through this, bar examiners looking to add current students to the mix.

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If you’re a typical cash-strapped law student, then Colorado has a deal for you! Summer work in the legal field is hard to come by these days, what with all the virulent plague going around, but the state needs proctors for the bar exam it’s running in-person next week and they’re willing to pay $18/hour for you to sit in a crowded space from 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. for two days. It’s a deal so good that you’d be crazy to say no!

While the examinees have gotten most of our attention on the impending in-person bar examinations, the proctors are also taking serious risks. And while we agree with Professor David Friedman that every justice on the Colorado Supreme Court who greenlit this exam amid an infection spike should be forced to proctor it in person, the reality is that the job of proctoring is farmed out to the community for a pittance and a pat on the back that they are “serving the public.”

But it appears that the combination of setting up additional testing locations and the general public’s seeming resistance to “voluntarily exposing themselves to a deadly pathogen for the sake of a hazing ritual for law nerds” has created a shortage of willing proctors. Thankfully, bar examiners believe they have a line on an untapped supply of proctors in the current law students trying to earn ramen money for the week.

Tipsters report recent Facebook posts on class sites calling for Class of 2021 grads:

The Colorado Supreme Court is looking for proctors for the bar exam on July 28 and 29. Because of the social distancing requirements, it is being offered at multiple locations, including the Merchandise Mart, CU, and DU. The pay is $18 per hour.

If you were wondering what your life is worth as a law student, it’s apparently $18/hour. Actually, that’s not fair. The odds of contracting the virus, even in superspreader conditions, aren’t 100 percent so it’s more like you’re being paid $18/hour to take on a 1-2 percent risk every hour for 23 hours over two days — multiply that out as you’d like.

And if you were wondering how America’s private lenders would countenance risking their future revenue streams for something so trifling, remember that the loans already racked up by these students aren’t dischargeable upon death so the banks will be just fine.

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Earlier: Amid Infection Spike, State Supreme Court Doubles Down On July In-Person Exam

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