SPOKANE — As a law student at Gonzaga University, Allison Drescher spent three years preparing for the bar examination — two consecutive days of multiple-choice questions and complicated essay prompts that test not only the legal wit of aspiring lawyers but also their mental stamina.
Those two days came and went last week, under unusual circumstances. Fewer than 80 applicants to the Washington State Bar Association took the exam Tuesday and Wednesday at sites in Tacoma and Spokane.
Drescher and hundreds of others opted out, thanks to a state Supreme Court decision to temporarily waive the test requirement due to concerns about COVID-19, including the potential spread of the novel coronavirus among test takers.
Jennifer Olegario, a spokeswoman for the bar association, said 571 applicants chose to receive law licenses through “diploma privilege” — that is, on the merit of their degrees from accredited law schools. Only those who were registered to take the bar exam last week or in September were given that option.
About 50 more people are expected to take the exam in September. The bar association scheduled that second session and split the test groups between Tacoma and Spokane to allow for social distancing.
The state Supreme Court decided the state should grant diploma privilege in June following a petition from the faculty of Seattle University’s School of Law.
In a letter to the court, the school’s dean, Annette Clark, wrote that students’ lives had been “turned upside-down” by the pandemic and the civil unrest that followed the “senseless killings” of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police.
“Some of our students have said they have trouble sleeping, with the sound of helicopters overhead, the thunder of flash-bang grenades nearby and the stench of tear gas drifting indoors,” Clark wrote. “The emotional toll of the killings is high and taxing the graduates’ ability to effectively prepare for the bar exam.”
Drescher, a 25-year-old from Orondo, recited the Oath of Attorney at the Spokane County Courthouse on July 13, and soon she will begin clerking for U.S. District Judge Rosanna Peterson in Spokane.
Though not required, Drescher plans to take the bar exam in Idaho in February. In part, she said, she wants the pride and satisfaction of passing a test she’s spent years preparing for. But she’s also concerned about her ability to progress as a lawyer because some in the field might not take her seriously if she hasn’t passed the exam.
“In my own opinion, I think what I do after law school and in my work will speak for itself. But I just don’t want to have any question marks next to my name,” she said. “You do have those people who are adamant in thinking that it’s a rite of passage that every young lawyer should have to accomplish.”
Drescher emphasized that law licenses are not “just being handed” to those who receive diploma privilege. In addition to law school, Drescher last year passed a legal ethics test called the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination. Last month, she took another required test featuring 60 multiple-choice questions on Washington state law. The bar association also conducts thorough background checks to review the “character and fitness” of each applicant.
