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Bar Exam Changes Don’t Please Everyone

Use of multistate essay questions leads to conflicts in testing days

By PATRICK R. LINSEY

There is always plenty of anxiety among those studying for the Connecticut bar exam. Now they can add to their concerns changes in the make-up of the test and the exact dates when it will be offered.

As of February, Connecticut will join more than 20 jurisdictions participating in the Multistate Essay Examination, prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. There are already a dozen essay questions on the Connecticut exam, but officials said they liked the idea of having access to some of the questions on the national exam.

“We received a presentation from someone from the National Conference of Bar Examiners … and I think were quite impressed by the level of vetting that goes on for each question by people who understand and study test-taking,” said Anne C. Dranginis, chairwoman of the Connecticut Bar Examining Committee, a principal at Rome McGuigan, and a former Connecticut judge.

University of Connecticut Law Dean Jeremy Paul supports the use of multistate essay questions as a step towards greater uniformity among state bar examinations. “I would like to see as much movement towards a national bar exam as possible,” Paul said. His view is that requiring attorneys to sit for multiple bar examinations acts as an “impediment to the free flow of commerce.”

However, with the new test comes a new testing schedule. And that’s causing some discontent among law students and law school leaders.

For years, Connecticut and New York gave their tests during the same three-day period in February and June. Many students have used the opportunity to take both tests in an attempt to become licensed in both states and expand their job prospects.

Students have gone to New York on Tuesday and Wednesday of exam week and taken the multiple choice section of the multistate exam (which counts in both states) and then the New York state-specific test . They then traveled to Connecticut on Thursday to take the Connecticut essay test.

Under the new schedule, New York and Connecticut’s differing sections will be administered on the same day, Tuesday. To integrate multistate essay questions into its test, the CBEC was required to move that section to Wednesday. (Any state using the national test must offer it that day to prevent students from tipping off peers in other states.)

Now those wishing to take both exams will need to sit for one in February or July and the other state’s test a half-year or so later. Candidates passing the MBE multiple-choice test will not need to retake that section, as both New York and Connecticut accept those scores from the previous three administrations of the test.

There is one silver lining. Connecticut test takers will now be able to take the Massachusetts exam during the same three-day period. The state-specific section of the Massachusetts exam is administered on Thursday of exam week.

High Quality Questions

CBEC members said they knew they were creating a scheduling conflict, but were swayed by the quality of the multistate essay questions. A committee composed of academics and practitioners drafts the questions, which are then analyzed by outside experts and reviewed in a grading workshop following the test.

“What the committee determined was the use of the essay questions and the rationale for using questions developed by the NCBE outweighed a scheduling issue for some takers,” said Dranginis.

Last July, 813 people sat for the Connecticut Bar Examination, 337 of whom took another exam during the same testing period. Those sitting in another state were “predominately” taking the New York examination, said Kathleen B. Wood, administrative director of the Connecticut Bar Examining Committee.

Wood said the essay portion of the Connecticut exam will still have 12 questions, each to be answered in half an hour. But now the CBEC will have the option of using up to six of the multistate questions, a choice the committee will make after it reviews the questions. The CBEC will continue to draft at least six essay questions itself.

The actual topics tested in Connecticut’s essay portion will not change. Wood said the only state-specific topic that may appear in Connecticut’s essay section is state constitutional law, adding it has been “a long time” since that subject was tested.

UConn law school e-mailed its students about the changes to the exam over the summer. Quinnipiac University School of Law is notifying its students as they return later this month.

Paul, the UConn dean, said the new dates were “a surprise.” Later, he said, “I personally was not following the connection between the shift to the [multistate essay questions] and the schedule conflict.”

Quinnipiac Law Dean Brad Saxton said about 40 percent of the school’s graduates sit for both the Connecticut and New York examinations.

“We’re trying to figure out how best to work with our students” regarding the change, Saxton said. “But I’m hoping as word gets out about this that there might be some possibility of thinking about whether it’s the best way to go.”

Saxton noted some firms will hire law school graduates only after they have passed the bar exam. “One consequence of this is that it conceivably will constrict the market that is available to new graduates,” he said. In this poor economy, “I think that’s a very unfortunate consequence.”

Making A Choice

Michael W. Coffey, a partner at Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP, said being admitted in both New York and Connecticut has been “helpful in the development of my legal practice.”

Coffey, who has tried cases in both New York and Connecticut, said the testing change could “limit the number of opportunities” for some junior attorneys.

“People would be forced to make a choice,” he said. “After [entering practice], studying for the bar is very time-consuming and difficult. The next year you might not want to sit for the bar again.”

One recent law school graduate said while not ideal, splitting the New York and Connecticut tests by six months would be “manageable … because you don’t have to take the MBE [multiple choice test] over.”

“For me, who has ties in New York, [the schedule change] would complicate matters,” said Tara Trifon, a 2009 graduate of UConn Law who sat in both Connecticut and New York. “At the same time, people who want to take Massachusetts and Connecticut exams had to do the exact same thing for years.” •

Patrick R. Linsey is a third-year law student at the University of Connecticut School of Law. He can be reached via e-mail at patrick.linsey@gmail.com.