Students taking mock bar exam in New York in 2017.

Law deans in New York are pushing back against the plan to reschedule the July bar exam for early September in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing concerns that the exam may not be possible for public health reasons and that any delay in licensing new lawyers will harm graduating law students.

An April 1 letter to Chief Judge Janet DiFiore of the New York State Court of Appeals signed by the deans of all 15 of the state's American Bar Association-accredited law schools urges the court to adopt a system whereby 2020 law graduates would be able to practice for up to 18 months under the supervision of a licensed attorney.

The deans say this plan would allow graduates to work in legal settings until they can take either the February or July bar exam in 2021. Moreover, the deans urge the court to consider allowing those graduates to forgo the bar exam altogether after working successfully for months with an experienced lawyer. They also said the court should seriously weigh an online bar exam.

"Even if a date for a September examination is set quickly, the unpredictable public health situation means that our graduates will still lack the certainty needed to structure their lives and finances," the deans' letter reads. "This uncertainty will particularly disadvantage graduates who already would have struggled to piece together financing to bridge the time between graduation, taking the exam, and starting work—even if the exam had been administered in July."

Lucian Chalfan, public information officer for the New York court system, said Thursday that DiFiore had received the deans' letter and would be "responding accordingly."

New York on March 27 became the first jurisdiction to announce that it would not hold the bar exam in July—a decision rendered by the Court of Appeals. It followed up March 31 with a statement that it will seek to administer the bar exam in "early September." (The National Conference of Bar Examiners, which develops the test, has said it will offer a fall bar exam for jurisdictions that cannot or choose not to move forward with the July test, but it has not yet announced a date for that administration.)

The Court of Appeals, in its latest public statement on the exam, acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding the ability to administer the bar in September and said it's considering a temporary expansion of an existing program that enables law students and graduates awaiting bar exam results to practice under attorney supervision. That existing program is limited to government and legal aid settings currently, but the court is considering expanding it to include private sector settings.

The law deans would like to see a more expansive supervised practice system implemented. Under their proposal, which would be temporary, graduates would be able to practice under the watch of a licensed attorney for 18 months, starting from the date of graduation. They could then take the February or July bar exam in 2021, and if they failed, their provisional admission would be rescinded. They also urged the court to consider going even further and allowing law graduates who have successfully completed that 18-month provisional to skip the exam.

"In light of the challenges of preparing for the bar examination while holding down a full-time job, we believe the court should consider allowing members of the class of 2020 who successfully complete a period of supervised practice to seek admission to the bar without sitting for the bar examination," their letter reads.

That proposal offers a twist on the temporary diploma privilege option that many graduating law students are lobbying courts and attorney licensing entities to adopt. Under that system, graduates of ABA-accredited law schools would be admitted to the bar without taking the bar and without practicing under the supervision of an experienced attorney.

The deans commended the New York court for taking swift action on the July bar exam matter, noting that other jurisdictions are likely to follow the state's lead.

"We urge the court to take a further step in this direction, protecting the members of our profession and the communities they serve by adopting an alternative route to bar admission when client need is most urgent and circumstances most precarious," they wrote.