New York Law Deans Demand Diploma Privilege For Law School Graduates Instead Of Bar Exam

While we support the adoption of an online examination as an option, the excessive delay in making a final determination on such an exam places an undue burden on our graduates who have been studying intensively for licensure for the past two months in the midst of extreme public health concerns and hardship.

The State of New York currently has no clear plan to facilitate the admission to the bar of thousands of our recent graduates. These graduates now are in a state of limbo, with a profound level of uncertainty and anxiety that surrounds their futures and economic stability as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic.

— excerpts from a letter signed by all 15 law school deans in New York, sent to the New York Court of Appeals, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and several other elected officials, addressing the need for the state to adopt diploma privilege for 2020 law school graduates “in the swiftest way possible” due to the ongoing pandemic and the recent cancellation of the bar exam. “Immediate action is essential,” they write.