Recent law school graduates in Georgia are sweating through a summer of uncertainty–preparing for an already-postponed bar exam while some press bar authorities for full licensure without having to take the test at all.

Meanwhile, about 200 have taken steps to receive provisional bar licenses as allowed by the Georgia Supreme Court when it shifted the bar exam from July to September.

Heidi Faenza, director of the Office of Bar Admissions, said 120 applicants have completed the paperwork to receive their licenses from the State Bar of Georgia, with all but a few of the remainder on track to finish the process. The rules require each provisional bar member be supervised by a lawyer who's been a bar member for at least five years, and the license expires if the applicant fails one of the next two bar exams.

"The process is going very well," Faenza said.

In addition to managing the provisional license applications, her office is planning to hold the next bar exam Sept. 9-10 at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park. She said the facility will be able to accommodate around 1,250 test-takers with appropriate social distancing. Masks will be required, the number of people in restrooms will be limited to keep people apart and test-takers will undergo health screenings.

But with the state reporting the highest numbers of new infections since the pandemic started, bar authorities may be feeling more pressure for another change in plans.

Jennifer Lee, a University of North Carolina law graduate, in March started a Change.org petition urging Georgia bar authorities to grant bar applicants a "diploma privilege"—that is, a license without having to take the exam. Utah, Washington state and Oregon are doing that.

Lee, who has a job at big firm in Atlanta with a start date that has been pushed to January, said "I have no choice" but to take the next bar exam.

"I don't like to choose between my health and my job," she said.

She noted that other states have offered online bar exams, and, while she thinks that would work in her circumstances, it would be unfair for applicants who live with children or in other situations where they could not find a quiet space to take the exam over two days.

A letter from student leaders from Georgia's five law schools urged the state Supreme Court to grant the diploma privilege.

"We must acknowledge the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has had and will continue to have on certain populations of recent graduates, including, but not limited to, immunocompromised recent graduates, low-income recent graduates, recent graduates who have contracted the virus, and recent graduates with significant family obligations," they wrote. "Enactment of diploma licensure, or the automatic admission to the Bar, for the class of 2020 would ensure fairness and equity to all recent graduates."

The signers of the letter were: Teana S. Overton of Atlanta's John Marshall Law School; Amneh Minkara of Emory University School of Law; Jack L. Donlon of the University of Georgia School of Law; Samuel Richards of Georgia State College of Law and Hannah Kicklighter Drown of Mercer University School of Law.

The group dismissed the usefulness of the provisionary license, arguing, "The reality is that some law recent graduates will not be able to apply for health care coverage from their employer if they are classified as a temporary employee. Anything less than diploma licensure will further strain our public health system—putting more recent graduates, their families, and the public at greater risk."

The demonstrations against systemic racism spurred by deaths of Black people at the hands of police around the country also play a role in the applicants' argument. "Black graduates and graduates of color are living through a traumatic moment in our nation's history," they wrote. "Graduates living in areas with regular protests explained that they hear the protests regularly and it distracts them from their studies, because of the noise itself and because of the constant, sometimes daily, reminder of civil unrest and the pain being felt in their community."

Responses

A spokeswoman for the state Supreme Court said Chief Justice Harold Melton said the court "is considering all options regarding the bar exam that is now scheduled to be given in-person in September. He said that, in all decisions the court makes in this area, it takes seriously its responsibility for the health of law school graduates and staff, as well as the protection of the public."

Mercer Law Dean Cathy Cox told the Daily Report that she had reviewed the filing from the recent graduates.

"While 'diploma licensure' sounds like an easy fix, I can imagine the reluctance of the court to approve it because the wide variances in law school curricula would make it challenging for them to say that all graduates are equally qualified to practice law in the state," she said. "I believe it would be a last-resort option, if all the other alternatives, including in-person or online examinations, for some reason cannot go forward."

Natasha Patel, Emory Law's senior director of the Center for Professional Development & Career Strategy, emphasized that her school's graduates are ready to practice. "Our curriculum provides both the theoretical and the experiential coursework that equips our graduates with the knowledge and experience to practice law," she said.

Dean Bo Rutledge of the University of Georgia School of Law credited "a close collaborative relationship between the law schools, bench and bar" that helped the court develop the provisional licensure plan in April.

"[W]e are grateful to our alumni, alumnae and friends who stepped up to supply professional opportunities and, in some cases, to provide funding for our students pursuing government and public interest work," he added. "We will continue to work closely with the leadership of the state's bench and bar and other Georgia law schools, as we did in April, to help chart the best way forward for our graduates in light of the evolving pandemic."