Massachusetts Proves You Can Still Have A Portable Online Bar Exam Score

Have other folks considered just... asking for help?

onJuly 27, 2020 at 1:44 PMJuly 27, 2020 at 1:40 PM

Online bar exams may not be ready for primetime this week and still pose a number of access challenges but, as we’ve noted before, they “don’t kill people” — which is worthy of praise.

But the forces committed to maintaining an in-person bar exam, up to and including the NCBE, have been quick to scold jurisdictions moving online that the decision to use an online test will rob applicants of future portability. Indeed, when Massachusetts became the first to float the idea of an online exam, the NCBE commented immediately to Law.com that “We understand that any alternative exam developed by the would allow local admission only.” To be clear, this is simply hostage-taking language: “Do the exam like we tell you to or we’ll take away your portability.”

For months now, I’ve been screaming into the void that states need to stand up for themselves when it comes to portability. After farming the job out to the NCBE for so long, states seemed to forget that reciprocity was something they used to be able to negotiate with fellow jurisdictions all by themselves. In the face of a pandemic, would a nearby jurisdiction really refuse to accept the credibility of an online exam given by another state? Surely logic would prevail.

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Now Massachusetts proves that you absolutely can have portable scores with an online exam.

Bob Ambrogi reports that the Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners announced this morning that it has entered into reciprocity agreements with seven jurisdictions for score portability:

The announcement said that Massachusetts has entered into reciprocity agreements with Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington D.C., and the board is working with other jurisdictions to expand that list.

Yes! See what states used to be able to do by themselves? If you reside in a jurisdiction that insists on an in-person exam citing portability, reach out and ask the bar examiners if they’ve even approached neighboring jurisdictions about emergency 2020 reciprocity. It may be too late for those taking the exam this week, but for those with Fall administrations still on the docket, now is the time to push to figure out if there’s some way to take this test that won’t put applicants in harm’s way.