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Law360 (May 6, 2020, 8:02 PM EDT) -- Add reapplying to the state bar to the list of headaches confronting at least some attorney hopefuls in New York as they attempt to navigate the ongoing tumult in the legal world caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Some candidates who have already passed the bar exam in New York received letters Wednesday from state court officials instructing them to email in their applications, which had already been submitted physically.
In one email obtained by Law360, the state's Appellate Division, First Department and Committee on Character & Fitness said they do not have access to applicants' physical files due to office closures. As a solution, the court officials said, they have developed a "new virtual interview and admission process" asking candidates to resubmit their application questionnaire and other related documents electronically, in PDF format.
But the process worries some New York applicants, as the documents they'll need to share include confidential personal information
"[They] have given us no information about whether or not they'll accept encrypted files or any guidance on how to do that, or any information at all about how they're going to store the information once they have it," one applicant said in an interview with Law360, expressing concerns over the security of the information.
"The implications for us are that it's really frustrating because we're being asked to choose between applying to become members of the bar, becoming lawyers, or giving up all of this information that could be really personally damaging in an age of quite a bit of internet identity theft," the applicant added.
Shortly after sending the first email, the state officials sent a separate email, noting that they have received "numerous emails" from applicants questioning about the new process.
"Please note that you must resubmit your entire application questionnaire and the corresponding forms," the email said. "Further requests to bypass this step will not be considered or responded to."
The applicant, who has applied in the First Appellate Division, told Law360 that not all applicants in New York received the email, adding that a friend in the Third Appellate Division did not receive the email.
State court officials were not available for comment on Wednesday.
Because of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York State court officials have also limited the setting of the rescheduled summer New York bar examination to in-state law school students.
To date, 19 states have canceled or postponed their July exams, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners. New York has rescheduled its July bar exam to Sept. 9–10.
"The delays, in general, have affected a lot of people's ability to get full employment or get their full salaries," the applicant said. "It's just frustrating."
--Editing by Alanna Weissman.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
