Most of the 2020 bar exams are now done and off for grading, with some unusual happenings, such as the test taker who claims to have wet himself because he couldn’t leave the camera on the laptop he was using for the remote access, and the much-celebrated Chicago taker who went into labor on day one, had her baby and then returned to finish day two. I bet she’ll get some offers simply because she clearly fits the “superwoman” mold. In any event, it’s probably a good time to look at the question of how we keep the gate to the profession.

Test takers in many states were worried that tech issues would result in a disaster. It seems that, with a few glitches, the system worked, and the bar exam joined most of the practice of law as an online enterprise. That’ll probably save courts and bars a lot of money on venues, proctors, bluebooks and such. It’ll also allow takers to avoid distractions like the guy who sat down next to me when I took it. The dude laid out two watches, about a dozen pens and pencils, a schedule of time and where he wanted to be on the questions, some Twinkies and several ampules of some sort of substance he was going to use if he grew faint. He looked at me funny when I asked him if they were amyl nitrate “poppers” (popular at the time to enhance gay sex pleasure), put the whole mess back into a bag and moved elsewhere. I can’t imagine taking the exam with that sort of show next to me.

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