The Florida Board of Bar Examiners’ (FBBE) inability to structure a sensible and predictable bar examination for the thousands of as-yet-unadmitted lawyers who have been studying for the last few months is indefensible. It harms the recent graduates, who are subjected to uncertainty and heightened levels of stress during an already difficult time; it harms law firms who are waiting for their new attorneys to show up and begin working; but most importantly it harms the clients of lawyers and law firms throughout Florida—the very people the FBBE is supposed to protect.

All barriers to professional entry, such as the bar exam, are predicated upon a fundamental “truth”—that a uniform, standardized testing protocol ensures a baseline of professional competence and also provides value to the consumers of those professionals who receive that certification. Even if both of those are in fact true, the focus is where it should be—on the general public. Sadly, this has been completely lost in the current testing debacle.