The State Bar of California pursued too many changes at once, setting the stage for the problem-plagued February 2025 attorney licensing exam, according to the agency’s former Executive Director.
Many of the February exam’s problems stemmed from the decision to change both the content and delivery system of the bar exam simultaneously, Leah Wilson said in an interview two days after stepping down as the State Bar’s Executive Director.
The Bar initially failed to grasp the magnitude of those two changes and should have tackled one at a time, she said.
“Did I think it was going to go off without a hitch? No, I would not say that,” Wilson said “Did I think it was going to implode? No.”
Deans of California law schools warned the Bar that rushing out a new exam was a bad idea, and bar takers raised technology concerns in the weeks leading up to the test.
“Every red flag that could have shown up did, and they did nothing to stop it,” said February bar examinee Harshita Ganesh of Wilson and the State Bar.
Wilson announced last month that she would step down, from the position she held since 2017—citing the botched February exam. She said she will take several months to determine her next move.
Wilson pointed to the “unprecedented meltdown” of the testing platform provided by vendor Meazure Learning as derailing the two-day test—an outcome Wilson said she never expected. She also said it was a “series of shortcomings” and not “any single smoking gun” that led to the test’s failure.
The State Bar sued Meazure Learning in May, accusing the company of not living up to its promises that its systems could handle thousands of bar examinees.
The California Supreme Court ordered a return to the previous exam and in-person testing for the upcoming July exam and the State Bar adopted a series of scoring adjustments for February examinees.
You can read more about the situation here.
For those of you currently studying for the July 2025 Bar Exam at the end of this month, there is still just enough time remaining to get help understanding those concepts that you don’t quite “get“ or how to earn extra points on your essays even when you don’t know or remember the applicable law. We at Marino Legal can provide this assistance to get you on track to pass before it’s too late. You can learn more about our famed Marino bar exam tutoring program here or email us at info@marinolegal.com.