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Law360 (July 9, 2020, 3:07 PM EDT) -- After pushing back the usual summer sitting of the state's bar exam earlier this year in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners announced Wednesday that it now plans to offer the test remotely at the beginning of October.
Although the board originally hoped to administer an in-person bar exam in September, it said in a letter posted to its website that the continued spread of the virus had made that option increasingly unfeasible.
"We moved the in-person bar exam from the end of this month to the beginning of September with hopes that the course of the COVID-19 pandemic would allow us to administer an in-person exam safely at that later time," the letter from board Chair David Fine said. "The best information from health authorities now compels us to conclude that it is unlikely we could do so."
Instead, the board said it will administer the test remotely over three days starting Oct. 5.
"We know that some will welcome this decision and others will not," the board said. "Please know that we gathered significant information, considered the interests of all stakeholders and reviewed a number of options before choosing to offer the next bar exam remotely."
In the end, the board said holding the test remotely was the best option to protect the health of test-takers and staff alike while also allowing new attorneys to be admitted to practice as usual.
As part of the decision delaying the usual July sitting of the test earlier this year, the state's Supreme Court agreed to allow recent law school graduates to begin practicing provisionally until they're able to take the test.
The board's letter Wednesday said the test's essay sections will be administered Oct. 5 and 7, and the multiple choice section, which will feature only half the usual 200 questions, will be administered Oct. 6.
The letter said the test will proceed in 45- or 90-minute segments with extra breaks in order to accommodate the additional security measures it plans to implement to ensure the integrity of the examination process.
Pennsylvania's decision to take the bar exam remote follows on the heels of Massachusetts, which earlier this month announced it would become the first state to hold the test virtually.
Florida, meanwhile, has vowed to press forward with an in-person sitting of its bar exam this month, despite an online petition that has drawn more than 1,300 signatures.
--Editing by Stephen Berg.
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