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Law360 (October 27, 2020, 9:38 PM EDT) -- The D.C. Court of Appeals' Committee on Admissions said Tuesday that it will administer the District of Columbia bar exam set for February 2021 remotely because of continuing risks from the coronavirus pandemic, joining several states that have made the same decision.
The decision comes after the committee had moved this month's exam online, finding the move convenient due to the "significant demand" for seats, space limitations and logistical challenges for social distancing in locations where hundreds of law school graduates would be taking the test.
In its announcement Tuesday, the committee said that "continued pandemic conditions" make the online test a necessity to protect the health and safety of test-takers, proctors and court staff.
The District of Columbia joins several states in moving its February 2021 bar exams online.
Last week, the New York Court of Appeals said its upcoming exam would remain online, saying the pandemic has "not abated sufficiently" to guarantee a safe in-person test.
Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Tennessee have also announced that their February exams would be administered remotely, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners.
The states' moves come amid growing scrutiny nationwide over remote exams and whether they would have a disproportionate impact on racial minorities and persons with disabilities. Some exam takers have voiced frustrations over the technology used for the tests, leading to calls for recent grads to be allowed to practice law without completing them.
A band of civil rights and disability groups sent a letter to the Conference of Chief Justices urging them to endorse temporary diploma privilege amid the pandemic. In California, persons with disabilities have taken their fight to court.
"At a time when our country is dealing with an economic recession disproportionately impacting communities of color and other underrepresented groups, the legal profession must consider how bar examination processes during the pandemic may exacerbate existing and long-standing inequities in our legal profession," the letter said.
Louisiana, Oregon, Utah and Washington are among the states to institute emergency diploma privilege this year.
After a group of law graduates experienced technology problems in the remote bar exam software scheduled to be used for Florida's exam in August, which prompted an apology from the state's chief justice, the Florida Supreme Court said graduates will be able to work under the supervision of a licensed attorney until one month after the February 2021 bar exam results are released.
And after California's first online bar exam this summer attracted a record number of applicants, the state's Supreme Court and the State Bar launched the Joint Supreme Court/State Bar Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of the California Bar Exam commission to consider changes to the exam "and whether to adopt alternative or additional testing or tools to ensure minimum competence to practice law."
In August, the California Supreme Court issued an order permanently lowering the passing score for the California Bar Exam from 1440 to 1390. Many lawyers, law professors, law school deans, students and state lawmakers had asked the court to apply the new minimum score to past exams, in particular the February 2020 exam, but the court refused.
The California Assembly has backed retroactively lowering the minimum score, and it passed a nonbinding resolution on Sept. 1 urging the high court to reconsider its refusal.
In September, California's Supreme Court rejected a petition from diploma privilege advocates who had pushed for the state to scrap its online exam altogether. And this month, the high court rejected calls for an open-book bar exam.
--Additional reporting by Khorri Atkinson, Justin Wise, Bill Wichert, Emma Cueto, Aebra Coe, Hannah Albarazi, Carolina Bolado, Nathan Hale, Craig Clough and Mike LaSusa. Editing by Peter Rozovsky.
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