Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/19/remote-bar-exams-for-aspiring.html
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Not sure if letting everyone pass the bar is a good policy. Maybe let the top N% at a school pass, where N is the percent that passed last year (or the average over the past three years).
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IAL in California and I wholeheartedly agree. The bar exam is a way for a professional guild to restrict the number of attorneys and tests only the most superficial knowledge of the law. For example, in our bar prep course, they told us to imagine that the typical bar exam grader would look at your answer to one of the one-hour essay questions while they were stopped at a red light and to adjust our answers accordingly. The multiple choice questions are, at best, a test of memorization. I learned everything I need to practice law while being trained by more experienced attorneys on the job.
There is even proof that bar exams are not needed. For many years now, in Wisconsin you don’t need to pass a bar exam as long as you go to a Wisconsin law school and practice law in Wisconsin.
While I’m on my soapbox, given the tremendous expense, there is no reason why law school should last 3 years. The final year for me was interesting, but not worth an extra $45,000.
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Case in point: Frank Abagnale, the real-life con-man whose life became the basis for Catch Me If You Can, was infamously able to pass the Louisiana Bar Exam (on his third try) despite being a 19-year-old with a fake Harvard Law School transcript and no legal training whatsoever.
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With sufficient motivation, remote proctoring is trivially easy to defeat.
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“A technical problem is difficult, so give up.”
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“Let’s make sure we’re solving the right problem the right way with the time and resources we have”
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Presumably, things have changed since the 1960s?
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First year, scare you to death.
Second year, work you to death.
Third year, bore you to death. – Because it’s utterly pointless. Just get rid of it! Now that you say that, it’s pretty obvious. I too learned nothing relevant and spent a wad in the process.
But, since I had to do it, everyone else should. (To the non-lawyers out there, this the reason why a lot of things happen in the law.)
Now, let’s see how sausage is made.
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Passing the bar just makes you less likely to get recommended by the Trump administration anyway for judgeships and AG positions.
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I’d be in favor of this if not for the fact that the bar exam seems to be the stumbling point for a lot of right-wing nutcase “lawyers” who hoped to practice some form of grifting with a law license to back them up.
Maybe a temporary pass for all, but you have to go back and take it for real when the 'Rona is finally yesterday’s news.
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I’ve always thought remote proctoring software was hilariously useless to stop anyone with any decent technical knowlege from cheating; just run the software (and take the test) inside a cloaked virtual machine (with your webcam with built-in mic USB-passthroughed to it) and then do your dastardly cheating (web browser, PDF reader, whatever) on the host.
If you are using a desktop, an even more undetectable way exists - a KVM switch and two seperate computers. Take the test on one computer and do your dastardly cheating on the other.
Just make sure you use a bad quality webcam (low res, crap focus) and turn your screen brightness all the way down so reflections don’t give what you are doing away.
In all seriousness, tests for any qualification of real importance should always be done in person. In IT/networking you can never trust the client; especially in cases like this where the legitimate/proper user has motive to act maliciously. Also: please don’t cheat to gain qualifications 
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You mean there is a danger that larval lawyers might be unethical and attempt to cheat?
I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
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Of course law schools want the money so they may never change. My school gave me a semesters worth of credits for an externship with a district court judge in my third year, it was a great experience that showed me how the actual practice of law was compared with the academic approach. Very useful.
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Remote bar exams for aspiring attorneys are a terrible and dangerous idea
Raise your hand if after reading that headline you thought the ‘terrible idea’ part was those poor law school grads possibly having their privacy invaded, and not…you know…a ‘terrible idea’ because said young proto-lawyers would cheat five ways to Saturday and pass the bar in record numbers?
Yeesh…
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They are now requiring remote proctored exams for certain IT certifications. Is the data on a law student’s computer, or the image of their face any more important than a comp-sci/MIS student, or even more critical; an existing developer or administrator at a fortune 100 company? This is life now. Improve the processes and technology and move forward. Don’t do stupid shit like “well, I guess everybody passes automatically”.
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Remote exams would be a good ethics test to at least kick out the wannabe lawyers who are unable to get away with cheating.
Load up with lots of honeypots to make it look like you can get away with things that you actually can’t.
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IAL and was on BART some years back and saw a fellow grading Bar exams on the train. MUst have done 5-6 between Embarcadero and West Oakland. They weren’t kidding about the care involved in grading.
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The difference is almost nobody really cares about certifications in the tech world, while passing the bar tends to be important if you want to be a lawyer.
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Even before checking the byline I knew this was written by a recent grad who hasn’t taken the bar.
Counterpoint: there’s a glut of lawyers already, and no benefit to society to permit a bunch of recent grads to practise law without passing the bar, especially those foolish enough to have chosen to go to law school knowing the current market for lawyers.
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