Illinois on Thursday joined the growing list of jurisdictions that have canceled their in-person bar exams and will instead offer an abbreviated online test Oct. 5 and 6. Ohio announced the exact same move a day earlier. Both had planned to administer the exam in person in September.

And like a number of other jurisdictions, bar authorities in Illinois and Ohio hope to work out reciprocity deals with other states that are now administering the same online October test, which is being prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

"Ohio shall explore entering into memoranda of understanding with other jurisdictions administering the NCBE's remote examination on October 5 and 6, 2020, to provide for reciprocity between the participating jurisdictions," reads the Wednesday order from the Supreme Court of Ohio.

The Illinois Supreme court has similarly authorized the state's Board of Admissions to the Bar to pursue such reciprocity agreements, it said in a message to test takers.

The path to licensure for new attorneys is in flux and disarray across the country as rising COVID-19 rates have forced many jurisdictions to abandon plans to administer traditional exams in July and September. Moving the test online in October has emerged in recent weeks as the most popular option among bar exam authorities, and the reciprocity agreements that states are brokering between themselves offer a rare bright spot for candidates dealing with mounting uncertainty amid the pandemic.

"It's absolutely the right thing for them to do—to make reciprocity agreements with as many state as they can," said Joan Howarth, a professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, whose scholarship centers on the bar exam. "Reciprocity is the big benefit from the [Uniform Bar Exam] in better times."

Thus far, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Tennessee and Washington, D.C., have established reciprocity with each other, meaning that those who take the online October exam can transfer their scores to those other jurisdictions for admission. New Hampshire and Vermont both moved to the October online exam in the past week and have said they are seeking reciprocity as well.

Georgia announced July 20 that it was canceling the in-person exam planned for September and giving the National Conference of Bar Examiners' October online exam. The state hasn't yet entered into any reciprocity agreements, said Heidi Faenza, director of admissions at the state's board of bar examiners. But reciprocity agreements are something the board will consider, she said Thursday.

But not all jurisdictions are going that route. Pennsylvania isn't in discussions to offer reciprocity to other jurisdictions even though it's also offering an online October test, said Gicine Brignola, executive director of the Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners. That's because the state's online exam will be different from the online exam in other jurisdictions. Pennsylvania plans to use the Multistate Bar Exam component of the exam—100 multiple choice questions provided by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. But it plans to write its own essay and performance test questions, in lieu of the ones provided by the national conference, Brignola said. Moreover, Pennsylvania is not a Uniform Bar Exam jurisdiction and its existing reciprocity rule requires attorneys to have five years of experience.

California is thus far the single-largest bar exam jurisdiction to commit to giving the Oct. 5 and 6 online exam, but like Pennsylvania, it's not offering reciprocity to other online bar takers, said a spokeswoman for the State Bar of California. The Golden State is not a Uniform Bar Exam Jurisdiction, though a newly formed commission examining the future of the bar exam is set to consider moving to the uniform test.

There are currently 37 Uniform Bar Exam jurisdictions, meaning that test takers in those states can transfer their scores for admission in those jurisdictions without having to take another bar exam. But COVID-19 has upended the status quo and disrupted the uniform exam, with so many jurisdictions taking different approaches.

The National Conference of Bar Examiners in June announced that it would offer jurisdictions a shorter online October exam as a backup, in the event that they couldn't move forward with in-person tests in July and September. But the organization was clear that the online version would not be a Uniform Bar Exam and would not offer the same score portability benefits as the traditional uniform exam. In addition to be an abbreviated format of the online test, each jurisdiction will be responsible for scoring and scaling the online exam results, which is another key difference with the Uniform Bar Exam.

Four states are planning to online exams in July or August that they developed themselves, and thus far no jurisdictions are offering reciprocity to those test takers. Florida, Nevada, Indiana, Michigan and Louisiana intend to give online exams they designed themselves.

Thus far, it appears that jurisdictions that are giving candidates a choice between an in-person exam and the Oct. 5 and 6 online exam are not offering reciprocity to other online bar takers. Those jurisdictions include Texas, Arizona, Oregon and Idaho.

For now, much of the attention rests on New York and what it will do with its bar exam. The New York State Court of Appeals on July 16 canceled the in-person bar exam that was slated for Sept. 9 and 10. But the court didn't lay out a new plan for attorney licensure. Instead, it established a working group that is to make a recommendation on the exam by early August. Moving to the October online exam is among the primary alternatives the working group will consider.

New York is a Uniform Bar Exam jurisdiction, as well as the single largest bar exam jurisdiction in the country. About 10,000 people typically sit for its July bar exam. A decision to administer the National Conference of Bar Examiners' October online exam and offer reciprocity to online takers in other jurisdictions would be a boon to law graduates—many of whom plan to work in New York but registered to take the Uniform Bar Exam in other jurisdictions with plans to transfer into New York. The New York State Board of Law Examiners in May encouraged graduates of out-of-state law schools to register for the exam elsewhere due to space constraints. But now some New York-bound law graduates are registered to take bar exams that—for the moment—aren't transferable.

"For jurisdictions that will not contemplate a diploma privilege, reciprocity with an online test is the next best option," Howarth said.