The California State Bar is broke. As in, it's projected to end 2024 with $3.3 million in reserves. That may sound like a lot, but the organization's budget for the year is projected to near $4 million. This is all to say, the California Bar has a major problem.
So what's the solution? As Bar exam tutor Sean Silverman writes on X, the organization may be changing how it administers its entrance test:
"In an effort to save itself, [the State Bar of California] has proposed (the proposal still needs to be accepted) that it discontinue all relationship with the NCBE [National Conference of Bar Examiners]. …the crux is that when you administer an NCBE test, you're bound by terms that the state bar would prefer to not be bound by. Especially the term preventing it from allowing for at-home testing, because at-home testing will allow it to save lots of money (and possibly eliminate its deficit)."
That "save lots of money" bit is the key. As Above The Law writes, the potential savings from the changes could help keep between $2.8 million and $4.2 million in the California Bar's coffers annually.
As Above The Law points out, the Cal State Bar tried at-home tests already during the pandemic, and the results were not great: "the state simply gave up on responding to support requests from examinees and after the fact decided to just blindly accept that one-third of the examinees were cheating and the whole thing turned out to breach state procurement procedures."
Well, maybe some lessons were learned?
According to Reuters, the transition to the new exam could come as early as February 2025, and an "aggressive" timeline for getting there has been laid out by the organization. Yet, more than a dozen deans from accredited law schools in the state have raised concern over this timeline, adding that "'cost consideration alone' was not a compelling justification 'to rush toward a hasty, risky, and poorly planned' test implementation."
Internal Corruption
Of course, the California Bar hasn't been run with the cleanest reputation over the last few years. A March 2021 internal audit laid out a very cozy relationship between disbarred lawyer Thomas GIrardi and the organization. A 2016 external audit by the state of California uncovered what the LA Times referred to as a history of "shady finances and bloated salaries." One such claim against the Bar detailed by the 2016 audit shows how the organization altered records to cover up complaints against lawyers. Moreover, the organization delayed payments to clients swindled by licensed attorneys.
The Verdict
The matters of internal corruption aside, the California Bar's plan to go remote with its entrance exam could be a major shift for the test. If things go well enough in the coming years, many more states could follow suit.
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