The deans of 12 Florida law schools have called on the state’s top legal authorities to provide new graduates with opportunities to take the bar exam in September as well as the scheduled July date due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A decision about the fate of the July bar exam in Florida is due by the first week of May.
In an April 7 letter to members of the state Supreme Court and the Florida Board of Bar Examiners, the 12 deans also recommended that if the bar exam must be put on hold beyond the start of October, graduates should be given more flexibility to practice their craft under the supervision of a someone already licensed to practice law in Florida.
“I do predict an increased demand for legal services in the state … just as we recover from the shift in our economy,” Laura Ann Rosenbury, dean of the University of Florida Levin College of Law and one of the letter’s authors, told the Florida Record.
The law school deans emphasized that new attorneys traditionally serve in important roles in government agencies and public-interest groups and that they would provide key services to businesses and individuals as they get back on their feet in the coronavirus aftermath.
In the letter, the deans offered the use of their campuses and classrooms for a more decentralized administration of the bar exam, with possible dates at the end of July and in September. The deans see this as a way to avoid students jammed at a single location, which would create health concerns and difficulties to maintain social distancing.
Having bar exams during both months was just one of the options the deans proposed.
“I don’t think we necessarily ranked the five options we set forth,” Rosenbury said. “We just wanted to present the court with multiple possibilities for bar exams to continue even amidst the covid pandemic.”
Other options include allowing students to take the two parts of the exam at different times if they choose, she said.
In the event state officials decide to postpone the bar further, more options for provisional licensing of new attorneys need to be considered, according to Rosenbury.
“Certainly, if there’s no bar exam by Oct. 1, there will need to be some form of provisional licensing so students can practice under the supervision of a licensed attorney before they take the bar exam,” she said.
Some of the law school students graduating this year are either ill, caring for ailing family members or enduring other hardships due to Covid-19, the law school deans wrote. Clearing up the current uncertainties will help them move forward with their legal careers, they said.