Software headaches adding to bar exam worries
Two business days from the July 2020 bar exam, some Indiana applicants are reporting problems with the software and adding more anxiety that they will not even be able to log on to take the test Tuesday.
Two business days from the July 2020 bar exam, some Indiana applicants are reporting problems with the software and adding more anxiety that they will not even be able to log on to take the test Tuesday.
A late change in the way the Indiana bar exam will be administered has raised sufficient fears of some applicants about the potential for wide-spread cheating that they are asking the test to be open-book. But the Indiana Supreme Court rejected a petition from dozens of law school graduates who will take the bar exam remotely next week.
After the COVID-19 outbreak upended the spring semester and forced everyone to shift to online learning, Indiana’s law schools are preparing to welcome students and faculty back into their buildings for a fall semester that will be unlike any other.
A second round of Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law students have been dispatched across the state this summer to assist rural county judges through a judicial clerkship program, despite setbacks caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Before the signs were taken down and the remnants of the past 140 years were put into an archive, Nadia Wardrip took her 2-year-old daughter to Valparaiso Law School at the end of May to snap a couple of photos. The Lake County deputy prosecutor had spent 12 hours a day, six days a week at the law school so she could become a prosecutor, as she had dreamed of doing since high school. Going back one last time helped her explain to her little girl how she became who she is.
In a final twist of cruelty, the final graduating class of Valparaiso Law School and the alumni did not get to gather one final time to commemorate their alma mater. The COVID-19 pandemic prevented faculty, alumni and friends from saying goodbye together. So the institution closed quietly after the class of 2020 concluded their studies in May, ending a tenure in legal education that began in 1879.
During the current health crisis, the Indianapolis Bar Association remains committed to its responsibility to support and equip law students with practical skills and knowledge to thrive as a young lawyer in Indianapolis. It is for that reason we’ve modified and adapted our IndyBar Review prep course, the most comprehensive bar prep course in the region, keeping in mind the same goal to prepare students for the July 2020 Indiana Bar Examination.
When I recently saw the video of George Floyd’s extrajudicial killing by law enforcement, a familiar sense of anguish, fury, hopelessness, and malaise swept over me. So did a sense of helplessness. We had seen this video before, over the long and many years. We had read this story. And yet, I had never before witnessed such a starkly calm extinguishment of a human life — a Black human life.
Eyes and ears of those gathered on the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law lawn Friday were trained on members of the Indianapolis legal community calling for action to push for racial equality.
As demonstrations and calls for criminal justice reform continue nationwide, a group of Indianapolis lawyers have organized a “Call to Action” to highlight the role lawyers can play in the push for racial equality. The new organization Indy Lawyers for Black Lives will host a Juneteenth event Friday at IU McKinney School of Law.
After recently shuttering its 140-year-old law school, Valparaiso University is going on the offensive to keep a donor from reclaiming a gift worth more than a million dollars that was made to support the legal education program.
The nearly 500 applicants who have registered to take the Indiana Bar Exam in July will need to have external webcams, quiet rooms and be prepared to write extensively for the test that will be given remotely for the first time because of the coronavirus pandemic.
An Indiana State Bar Association online program geared toward newly admitted attorneys is hoping to prepare and equip new lawyers on how to begin their legal careers in the midst of uncertain times posed by COVID-19.
The July bar exam is one example of the Supreme Court’s nimbleness as it moves in a new direction to help recent law school graduates and new lawyers overcome the stress and hardship created by the pandemic. Within the span of roughly two months, the justices moved the May admission ceremony online so those who passed the February bar could begin their legal careers as soon as possible and established the graduate legal intern program to give 2020 graduates the option of getting a limited license.
Indiana Lawyer congratulates the following 113 applicants who passed the February 2020 Indiana Bar Exam, many of whom took their oath as new attorneys during a virtual admission ceremony May 5.
New lawyers preparing to launch their fledgling legal careers in 2020 look similar to the generations that came before them, but some things set millennial lawyers apart. Their ever-evolving professional aspirations and career trajectories appear less traditional than the routes taken by their predecessors in decades past.
The May 2020 Indiana Bar Admission Ceremony was historic in several respects. Aside from taking place during a global pandemic, it was Indiana’s first virtual bar admission and the first where every admittee — all 105 — participated.
Examining a witness online made Sarah Kelly a little disconcerted. The Indiana University Maurer School of Law student was part of the patent trial class that spends an entire semester preparing a patent case then culminates in a mock trial. Typically the pseudo litigation takes place in a courtroom before a jury and real judge, but this year the COVID-19 emergency pushed the courtroom battle online.
The IndyBar is ready to step in to bridge the gap for new graduates with the no-fee Graduate Legal Intern Skills Workshop, which will provide tools 2020 Indiana law school graduates need to get to work.
The Indiana Supreme Court will be offering the bar exam in July, but the normal two-day, in-person test will be condensed to a one-day exam that will be given remotely, the court announced.