Unmasked

It's in the moments of fiery crises that heroism is revealed.  

I think of our students, heroes everyone of them, finding within the resiliency and creativity to successfully adapt to online learning.  I think of the academic support community and law school faculty and staff, springing into action, resolutely empowering novel ways to encourage vibrant learning despite the difficulties.  I think of the many workers - across all walks of life - giving of themselves, in the front lines all of them.  

It's in these hard spots of life, the difficulties and trials, in which our true beings are revealed, unmasked so to speak.  

But there's more unmasking to be done.  And quickly too.  That's because many of our students have just finished their law school studies and are ready to graduate.  Ready to move onto the next step.  Ready to serve and contribute to the world.  

Yet many states are postponing bar exams with no certainty that latter dates will be any better - health-wise - for holding in-person bar exams.  

However that's not the situation that's just been decided by the Indiana Supreme Court.  Indiana is moving forward this July 2020 with a one-day online bar exam. And it looks like Nevada might be joining the movement to an online exam too. And one state, Utah, has taken an even bolder approach in implementing an emergency diploma privilege.  https://www.law.com/2020/05/08/in-a-first-indiana-will-hold-one-day-online-bar-exam-in-july/?slreturn=20200414232636; https://www.nvbar.org/nevada-supreme-court-seeks-comments-by-may-14-re-modification-to-july-bar-exam/

Nevertheless, back in April in a white paper, the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) brushed aside the possibility of online exams or diploma privilege, arguing that online exams were unworkable and that the diploma privilege was not beneficial to the public good. http://www.ncbex.org/pdfviewer/?file=%2Fdmsdocument%2F239.  

When I applied to law school (and for the bar exam), there were no online applications.  It just couldn't be done.  But oh how times change, if only we are willing, courageous, and creative.  Now, I doubt one can apply for law school save through an online application.  The same goes, I suspect, for most bar exam applications.  It's all online now.  Except for the bar exam itself.

The only thing that limits us to the present is us.  

It's not too late for New York, or California, or any other jurisdiction to implement a one-day online bar exam this July.  

But that takes removing the masks that so often keep us living in the present, forever failing to see the future.  And, to be honest, living in the present, when the present of the past no longer exists due to COVID-19, is not really living in the present.  It's living behind the mask of the past.  

The next step is for you - state supreme courts and jurists.  We would like join with you, and local and state bar associations and practitioners, to move forward thus summer, whether that's with an online bar exam or with diploma privilege.  The choice is yours. (Scott Johns).