SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The State Bar of California apologized for what it called an “inadvertent” and “premature” release of bar exam materials to several California law schools, just five days ahead of the exam required for attorneys to obtain their licenses.
The California State Bar oversees licensing and disciplining of attorneys in California. The information was accidentally released on Thursday, the upcoming exam takes place on July 30 and 31, the California Bar wrote in a statement on Sunday.
Donna Hershkowitz, the Chief of Programs for the California Bar, said in a statement that the information was released during a routine invitation asking law deans to observe grading sessions. However, those invitations are typically sent out after the exams have been taken.
“We have no evidence the information was shared with students,” Hershkowitz said in a statement. “However, out of an abundance of caution and fairness, and in an attempt to level the playing field should any applicants have had access to the information contained in the memo, on Saturday evening, we emailed the same information, verbatim, to all those preparing to take the examination.”
Deans from 16 law schools across the state received the invitation.
Twitter swirled over the mix up, with dozens of recent law school graduates and attorneys asking the California Bar if the incident was a hoax. Others criticized the California State Bar for the leak, comparing it to an unfair advantage to previous and future students.
Mercedes Castro of San Diego is a recent California Western School of Law graduate who took to Twitter voicing concern.
“To find out that this has happened, is unbelievably upsetting," Castro said.
She is among the 67% of graduates and attorney's who took the California Bar exam last February and didn't pass. 6,891 people took the February 2019 California bar exam, according to California bar data.
“They’ve got an advantage and it’s unfair," Castro said.
Castro is currently working with a Southern California law firm and is studying for the February 2020 bar.
“We apologize for the error,” Hershkowitz said in a statement. “We will post answers to frequent questions from applicants in the Admissions section of the website as soon as possible.”
The University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento informed its students of what happened on Facebook.
“This is not a hoax,” wrote Interim Provost Michael Schwartz of McGeorge Law School in a Facebook statement. “Our school, along with many other California Law Schools, has confirmed the authenticity of this email, which the State Bar sent because of an inadvertent leak of the topics it will test on the bar."
Dean Michael Colatrella Jr. with McGeorge School of Law, says his faculty and administrators spent Sunday morning alerting students to the leak. The school is working to make sure all students who to take the bar exam are as prepared as others.
“I do feel like there could be some amount of students… Who don’t get this message until later today," Colatrella said.
The post went on to encourage recent graduates taking the exam to take advantage of the information.
About 16,000 students take the California State Bar exam each year and it's known for its rigor. The exam consists of two tests, the general bar and the attorney’s exam, which consist of several essays and performance test questions. The exam takes about 12 hours to complete over two days and is administered each year in February and July.
Questions could cover 13 possible subjects including civil procedure, constitutional law, torts, and evidence to name a few.
The California Bar exam is graded by the Committee of Bar Examiners (Committee), which consists of 150 experienced attorney’s, according to the California Bar. A majority of graders have been grading the exam for at least five years.
Continue the conversation with Giacomo on Facebook.