As our country grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, the resulting economic collapse, and a nationwide reckoning regarding systemic racism, states are confronted with the unique challenge of licensing new lawyers for professional practice in 2020.
Image: Logo of Diploma Privilege Massachusetts, a group of recent law school graduates in Massachusetts.
On July 1, 2020, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”) cancelled the in-person administration of the Uniform Bar Exam (“UBE”) and, instead, opted for the administration of a remote bar exam on October 5 and 6. This unprecedented online bar exam is currently the only means for obtaining a legal license in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the remainder of 2020. While the decision to cancel any sort of in-person bar exam was proper in light of serious health concerns, a remote bar exam is simply not the best solution. A remote bar exam is fraught with technological, privacy-related, and practical concerns which all disproportionately disadvantage applicants of color who are already disparately impacted by the novel coronavirus.
Deciding to move forward with the administration of any bar exam in 2020 completely disregards the incredible and unique pressures that recent law graduates, especially Black, Indigenous, and people of color (“BIPOC”) graduates, are facing and will continue to face. A delayed bar exam means a delay in employment and a steady paycheck for many graduates. This will significantly affect individuals’ ability to afford housing, food, and other basic necessities.
Under normal circumstances, graduates would receive their degrees in May, take the Bar exam in July, and become licensed around October. Delays due to COVID-19, however, have caused the cancellation of graduation ceremonies, the postponement of the Bar (twice) with the new exam not being offered until October, and a delay in licensure until January 2021. This leaves the average graduating student without a license, and therefore likely unable to work, from May 2020 to January 2021.
To further compound financial instability, most graduates are expected to begin repaying some amount of incurred student debt in November 2020. With all of these factors in play, the likelihood that recent graduates will be forced to seek at least part-time work is high. A remote exam only works to add insult to already significant injury. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, childcare and traditional K-12 schooling is uncertain and graduates are forced to study for, and consider taking, the most important exam of their professional lives at home with noisy children, roommates, spouses, partners, siblings, parents, grandparents, and pets.
As Florida becomes the COVID-19 epicenter of the world, Texas hospitals run out of ICU beds, and California goes back into lockdown, the anxiety students are facing is only compounded by the worry that their friends and relatives in these virus hot spots may become ill and tragically pass away.
Furthermore, both the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide reckoning regarding systemic racism have a greater impact on BIPOC graduates. Specifically, Black and Latinx individuals are three times as likely to become infected with the virus than their white counterparts and, most horrifyingly, two times more likely to die. While we are all being called to action to fight for an end to systemic racism in the United States, Black folks are directly impacted by this fight. Expecting Black graduates to take a licensing exam, that already has a disparate impact on Black folks under normal circumstances, is not only unfair but serves to further perpetuate a racist gatekeeping function that keeps our Black colleagues out of the legal profession despite their legal acumen.
While Massachusetts does not collect data on racial disparities in the outcomes of the bar exam, New York, which offers the same exam as Massachusetts, does. In 2017, the bar passage rate for white examinees in New York was 79.6%, the bar passage rate for Black examinees was 48.6% and the bar passage rate for Hispanic and Latinx examinees was 57.1%. This means that in New York, on the exact same exam that Massachusetts offers, a white examinee is 64% more likely to pass the bar than a Black examinee and 39% more likely to pass the bar than a Hispanic or Latinx examinee.
That is part of the reason why there is a growing movement to persuade the SJC to grant emergency, one-time-only diploma privilege as a more equitable means for obtaining a legal license in light of the current moment. Diploma privilege would allow law school graduates to begin using their degrees without taking a Bar exam, subject to other requirements for proving basic legal competency, e.g. apprenticeship, wherein graduates would work under, and be supervised by, a licensed attorney who would in turn then certify the graduate’s competence.
For law students and recent law graduates wishing to show their support, please sign our petition.
For practicing attorneys, law school professors, and other legal professionals wishing to show their support, please sign our petition.
For more information on how you can help support 2020 graduates, check out our resources page.
Diploma Privilege MA is a group organized by Massachusetts class of 2020 law school graduates. Their position advocates for emergency diploma privilege plus in place of the Bar Exam for 2020 applicants, as the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the July 2020 administration to an October remote exam.