We haven’t yet heard all the horror stories of this bar exam cycle. But we do know that bar examiners in New York dropped a voicemail informing everyone that they’d be marked as withdrawn if they couldn’t overcome the travel challenges of 10,000 canceled flights and two feet of snow. It was yet another reminder — heaped upon every lesson learned throughout the COVID pandemic — that bar examiners care less about making sure licensed attorneys achieve minimum standards of professionalism than they do enforcing petty rules.
While the brunt of the storm hit Manhattan and Long Island, the Albany test center apparently didn’t exhibit much sensitivity to the weather conditions either. “Capital Center in Albany acted like crazy people,” wrote one Reddit post. “Kicked everyone out into the SNOW 10 mins after exam ended. And no Ubers just for fun.”
You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. Future professionals probably deserve better than the hangers on after last call, but that’s too much to ask. And these were the lucky ones — no matter the indignity of shivering in the cold waiting for Ubers, these applicants at least got to take the exam unlike the folks still waiting on a flight to get rescheduled.
As bad as New York’s response to this storm may be, it’s important to keep in mind that a callous fixation on arbitrary power trips is not limited to bar examiners of just one jurisdiction. Over the bridge in New Jersey, examiners offered a two-and-a-half hour delayed start to the exam, a gesture that seems compassionate until you remember that a couple hour delay does very, very little to make the roads safer and exactly squat for anyone trying to fly in.
Transform Legal Reasoning Into Business-Ready Results With General AI
Protégé™ General AI is fundamentally changing how legal professionals use AI in their everyday practice.
From a Redditor:
Unfortunately I’m not in the best spirits. I’m taking the bar exam tomorrow. The Board has approved a two-hour delay for tomorrow’s bar exam, but this is not enough. Roads remain unsafe, transit is operating on modified schedules, and areas near Atlantic City, Margate, and Ventnor are extremely difficult to access. Many examinees physically cannot get their cars out or travel safely. I know for me Ive been trying to shovel my car out since 1pm to no avail and I’m hoping the uber tomorrow doesn’t cancel on me. I’m already so worried.
Of course the examiners assume that anyone who doesn’t show failed to make it of their own accord, without considering that cabs wouldn’t be available to drive everyone through blizzard conditions. But at least one NJ location found itself on the wrong end of this assumption. According to a tipster, after arriving at the test center two hours later, applicants still had to wait a few more hours because… the truck delivering the test sheets hadn’t arrived!
Alas, so focused on making the experience miserable for the applicants, the examiners never considered the possibility that their vendors would face the same obstacles. At least they could rest assured knowing that as much as this inconvenienced the precious exam, it made everything even worse for applicants too.
5 Tips For Proving Your Legal Department’s Value
Join our expert panel on March 3rd at 1pm ET to explore actionable, emerging ways you can gather and proactively share the data that demonstrates the impact of your work.
Good luck to everyone returning to the test today. As always, if you hear of any bar exam horror stories, let us know at [email protected].
Earlier: NY Bar Exam Tells Applicants Stranded By Historic Blizzard To Pound Snow
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 or Bluesky 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.