Dean Paul Caron Joins 16 Other Law School Deans in Requesting California Supreme Court to Address Widespread Problems With February Bar Exam

Dean Paul L. Caron joined 16 other ABA law school deans in requesting that the California Supreme Court address widespread problems with the February 25-26 California Bar Exam.  The law deans asked the court to provide provisional licensure under the supervision of experienced attorneys for all applicants who sat for and failed the February exam, discard the state bar's new remote-testing platform, and return to in-person exams in July. 

From the Recorder article, "Deans Ask California High Court to Provisionally License Grads Who Fail February Exam"

In a four-page letter to Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero, deans of the American Bar Association-approved schools also called on the court to grant provisional law licenses to anyone who fails the February test that was marred by severe technical failures last week.

"Provisional licensure would allow candidates with offers of employment contingent on bar passage to retain them," the deans wrote. "It would give those who have spent down savings or taken out loans to study for the bar examination the opportunity to earn the income they may need to prepare for another attempt."

Additionally, the letter urged the court to dump the bar's new test-writing vendor, Kaplan, and to instead return to the National Conference of Bar Examiners' multistate bar exam, at least for the summer test. The deans said their graduates reported seeing typos and other errors in the multiple-choice exam.

The complete article may be found at the Recorder

The law school deans letter may be found at The February 2025 California Bar Exam

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