Welcome back to Ahead of the Curve. I'm Karen Sloan, legal education editor at Law.com, and I'll be your host for this weekly look at innovation and notable developments in legal education.

This week, I'm looking at this summer's bar exam debacle from 10,000 feet. What impact will this have on how new lawyers feel about the legal profession? Plus I'm filling readers in on all the latest bar exam developments. But it's not all bad news out there. I'm checking in on new gifts to the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and Penn State Dickinson Law. Plus, admissions deans at Harvard and Yale Law are teaming up for a new podcast that aims to demystify the application process. Read on and stay safe!

Please share your thoughts and feedback with me at [email protected] or on Twitter: @KarenSloanNLJ

Welcome to the Circus: 2020 Bar Exam Edition

I wasn't going to write about the bar exam in this week's column. Really, I wasn't. I reasoned that I needed a break from covering the story that has dominated my life for the past several months. And you readers might be in need of a palate cleanser as well. But then I read the following sentence that Rutgers Law School Co-Dean Kimberly Mutcherson wrote in an open letter that was signed by 28 other law deans from across the country endorsing a diploma privilege, and I felt like it so perfectly encapsulated the current situation that I just had to amplify it.

"Those we are welcoming into our profession are dealing with an increasingly absurd set of decisions about the bar exam," the letter reads.

I think that about hits the nail on the head. What began in April and May as (I believe) well-intentioned moves by jurisdictions to balance the health and safety of law graduates with upholding the traditional attorney licensing process has devolved into a circus. I truly feel terrible for the candidates who were required to show up last week and take tests along with hundreds of others, not knowing whether they would be exposed to COVID-19 in the process. And my heart goes out to the test takers who were diligently preparing for online bar exams, only to have the tests postponed mere days in advance. And then there are thousands more in limbo, waiting to take an unproven online October test, knowing that the first such test this week was marred by technical problems. There are no winners here, save the relatively small number of candidates with the option to take a diploma privilege.

I'm hardly the first person to raise this question, but I wonder how these new lawyers will feel about their profession and about joining bar associations after being put through an emotional wringer over this test. I've spoken with many of them in recent weeks—I hear the despair in their voices and I see it in their social media posts. Many of them believe that the legal industry is literally prioritizing tradition over their well-being. That's not a good look for an industry that has supposedly recognized it has a problem with mental health and wellness and is trying to do better. That said, it seems like many inside legal education and some within bar groups are becoming more vocal about alternatives to the bar exam during the pandemic. Better late than never.

Here are some key bar exam developments from the past week or so:

➤ Indiana plans to administer its Aug. 4 bar exam via email. You read that right: Test takers will receive their essay questions via email and must email their answers back within a certain timeframe. This process will repeat two times during the one-day exam. Since it won't be proctored in any way, Indiana is making the exam open book.

➤ Both Indiana and Nevada on July 24 postponed their online exams that were to be given on July 28. The exam software platform from vendor ILG Technologies failed several tests, prompting courts to hold off. While Indiana has abandoned the test platform altogether (see above) Nevada thus far appears to be sticking with it for its Aug. 11 exam.

➤ Michigan went ahead with its online exam July 28, making it the first remote bar exam in history. But that milestone was marred when some test takers were temporarily locked out of the second of five test modules when the website distributing passwords crashed. The software vendor for the test, ExamSoft, said it was the victim of a cyberattack, though some are skeptical of that explanation.

➤ A person who sat for Colorado's in-person bar exam on July 28 and 29 at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law tested positive for COVID-19. (They were asymptomatic at the time of the exam and had been tested as a precaution for an upcoming surgery.) The school notified the 20 other test takers who were in the same room and urged them to monitor themselves for virus symptoms.

➤ The American Bar Association's House of Delegates is slated to consider a last-minute resolution urging states to cancel in-person bar exams during the COVID-19 pandemic and embrace alternative paths to licensure, such as supervised practice programs, remote exams, and diploma privileges.

➤ The Pennsylvania Bar Association's Board of Governors has endorsed an emergency diploma privilege for bar takers in the state, while the District of Columbia Court of Appeals is accepting public comments on a proposed diploma privilege.

➤ Law deans in California are lobbying the state's high court to retroactively apply the newly lowered bar exam cut score to those who sat for the exam in February. The court in July bumped the cut score from 144 to 139, when it also moved to an online bar exam on Oct. 5 and 6.

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And Now for Some Good News…

Remember that palate cleanser I mentioned earlier? Believe it or not I've come across some good news in legal education over the past week so here's a quick look at a few positive developments.

— The admission deans at Harvard Law School and Yale Law School are teaming up for a new podcast that will offer an insider look at the application process. The podcast, dubbed Navigating Law School Admissions with Miriam & Kristi, will debut in mid-August. Hosts Miriam Ingber (Yale) and Kristi Jobson (Harvard) plan to bring on other admissions deans and guests. Check out a trailer for the podcast here.

— The University of Southern California Gould School of Law snagged a more than $1 million gift that will fund scholarships for Black students and others, with a goal of attracting a more diverse law school class. The funds come from USC alum Harold Brown and the Rosalie and Harold Rae Brown Charitable Foundation. "I hope this scholarship makes a difference in the lives of Gould students, who will then go on to make a difference in the lives of so many others during their legal careers," Brown said.

— Speaking of donations, Danielle Conway, dean of Penn State Dickinson Law, is giving $125,000 of her own money to her school's Future Fund and the university's Student Care and Advocacy Emergency Fund. The donation will be used to support law school programming and help students in financial need amid the COVID-19 crisis. "I am a firm believer that we have to invest in the development of our next generation of leaders," Conway said in an announcement of the gift. "We can't ignore the pressing needs that they have right now."

Extra Credit Reading

The answers from some 140 LSAT Flex takers were lost due to a technical glitch during the July online admissions exam. The Law School Admission Council is scheduling a makeup test this week for those affected.

Most law school admissions officials expect new student enrollment to hold steady this fall, despite the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent survey by Kaplan Test Prep found.

A new study by the American Bar Association found that high percentages of new lawyers are putting off buying homes, cars, marriage and starting a family because of their educational debt.

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I'll be back next week with more news and updates on the future of legal education. Until then, keep in touch at [email protected]