Liz Gil

I would love to write an open letter to this board to plead for change, since I know from experience the BOLE itself will not listen - but the fact that I don’t even know where I would send it is crazy.

We’re a “self regulating profession,” and yet it seems like this system does everything in its power to protect against being held accountable by *checks notes* the people in this profession.

Members of the NY state bar should have a right to know who the 5 attorneys on the NYBOLE’s board of overseers are.

The fact that this information isn’t readily available, when they are officers appointed by the NY court of appeals to manage all things related to entering the profession, is wild.

Anyone talking about the 90s like it was a feminist haven free of a manosphere has clearly forgotten about what the 90s was actually like or never bothered to study it

Devastated to see the children were starved by the hunger.

#Satire

Sometimes it's fun to post something like "Bacon is a food for babies and dogs" and log off. Bunch of people trying to yell at you but their phones keep slipping out of their greasy bacon hands

Focusing on how a bunch of scared and confused examinees should’ve readily disobeyed instructions like trained EMTs is fucking ridiculous, esp when their guilt and terror in the aftermath is so palpable. What are you trying to accomplish? How does beating on these examinees help fix anything?

The NYBOLE crammed them all in that room. The NYBOLE took away all the examinees’ phones. The NYBOLE placed proctors in positions of oversight over the administration of the exam. Those proctors instructed confused and scared examinees to “stay in their seats”.

Yes, reflecting on our actions as bystanders is important and valuable. But responsibility for a potential *death* is a weight beyond words - and the posts I’ve read from examinees suggest they are being *crushed* by it. From the NYBOLE, meanwhile, we haven’t heard a fucking peep.

Another infuriating thing abt the NY bar exam story? Ppl are already piling on on social to chastise *examinees* for not immediately disobeying instructions to stay in their seats/springing into action like firefighters.

Bc god forbid we blame the system whose job it was to keep everyone safe.

(Too dark?)

o nooooo, being put out of my misery :) so scary :)

Me, watching the mushroom cloud that is living in America rn: “you know what’s non-negotiable for me? Using the right internet slang for this”

I have been made aware that the correct term is “enshittification”, not “shittification.” I sincerely apologize for my prior errors. The world burning down does not excuse incorrect terminology usage. I will do better in the future.

- Management

Liz has long been pointing out the ways in which the bar exam is not fit for purpose—it really doesn’t tell you anything about a lawyer’s future performance or aptitude—but this recent incident in… |... Liz has long been pointing out the ways in which the bar exam is not fit for purpose—it really doesn’t tell you anything about a lawyer’s future performance or aptitude—but this recent incident in Ne...

Some thoughts on the recent heartbreaking incident at the NY bar exam. With thanks to @lizcgil.bsky.social for always speaking out on this topic and standing up for our future lawyer colleagues.

www.linkedin.com/posts/melina...

Ok, he replied saying I was being hyperbolic so all “I’m sure he meant well” vibes are out the window, his take was bad and I don’t feel bad

Snapshot of nybole website that says: The operations of the State Board of Law Examiners are overseen by a five member Board of attorneys appointed by the New York Court of Appeals.

Yeah, same here. I honestly think, with leaden certainty, that we’re going to be stuck like this until there are more progressive, rational thinkers on state courts (and, in NY’s case, whatever this five-person “board of overseers” is). This is their failing.

Correct. But as we know (and they have demonstrated), these people are incredibly unwilling to offer accommodations we’d consider totally reasonable. Which, to me, suggests that calling for a meaningful overhaul of the system is the only productive path forward

“Not everyone has the privilege to just stop the bar exam because someone was having a heart attack next to them” is already living rent free in my brain. It’s haunting. I understand the intent but if you step back for a sec & put your actual human glasses on….whew.

What, what, WHAT are we doing.

Screenshot of comment that says: “I rarely comment on others posts, but here goes … Another perspective is that the test administrators were allowing others to continue. I’m all for giving folks the option to terminate their testing, but think about the tremendous impact not finishing the test may have on others. I happen to have a good friend who’s immigration status is closely tied to passing the current exam. Others entire families financial situation might be contingent on bar passage etc. Having the luxury to simply retake an exam at a later is not a luxury shared by all.”

Responses from me that say: the issue with this rationale is that it reframes paying attention to someone who’s dying next to you as a luxury that can only be afforded by some. That is certifiably insane. If that’s the position we’re putting some people in, we should all be unequivocally calling for a massive overhaul in our licensure procedure. I’ve spent six years of my life now advocating for licensure reform. I am viscerally, painfully aware of the stakes for many. What I am commenting on here is fundamentally different from that. If we are manufacturing situations in which the stakes are so high that people feel even the slightest pressure to just ignore a life or death situation, what on earth are we doing”

I know he meant well but imagine telling me to “think about the impact not finishing the test may have on others” lmao. I gotta laugh. I’ve thought about it nonstop for six years my guy 💀

It goes without saying that examinees never should’ve been in this position in the first place. But I am so fiercely sure that the examinees who stood up, who intervened, are the ones I want holding licenses along with me. I would pass them all if I could.

If you would stop in the middle of the bar exam to help someone in a health crisis, even if it meant a failing score after months of study/risking your job, etc - YOU are who our profession needs most. THAT is zealous advocacy. THAT is moral fiber. Don’t ever let the ghouls beat it out of you.

If these kinds of decisionmakers continue to have disproportionate power over licensure - if they are not swiftly and speedily fired on a one-strike basis - this is going to continue to happen. And it’s maddening since the majority of this profession has no power to right this wrong.

I’ve been saying this for years and been called dramatic for saying it, but we just keep getting more and more evidence of it:

There are people associated with the administration of the bar who are, quite literally, fine with examinees dying. This is not hyperbole. It is fact.

She was down for 10 minutes...

I need the NY Board of Bar Examiners and the NCBE to be destroyed for this.
To be clear - THEY TAKE OUR PHONE SO NOONE COULD CALL. AND THEY FUCKING. DIDN'T. AND THEN PROCEEDED AS USUAL.

Good for her, though I will die on the hill that they should’ve stopped the exam. Saving someone’s life should not, ever, potentially cost you your career

The bar exam is a hazing ritual. In my state it’s also rooted in racism: we did not require a bar exam until our flagship HBCU opened a law school in 1947. As a person who hires new law school grads each year, I see no value in the test. Much more to be learned from an interview and writing sample.

Snapshot of LinkedIn post from me that says: “I am so disgusted, infuriated, and sadly unsurprised by this story. Requiring examinees to press on with this exam, when someone seems to quite literally be dying right next to them, is not “perseverence” or “training our future lawyers for practice.” It’s normalizing total, damning apathy. If your colleague collapsed in the middle of the workday, would you just keep going? Would you tell yourself that ignoring their obvious health crisis means you’re a better, more “disciplined”, more “prepared-for-anything” attorney? And if your juniors wanted to intervene, would you tell them not to, or punish them professionally for doing so? Thankfully, I don’t think I know a single person in this profession who would do those things. So why is it what we’re demanding of our future colleagues? Why is the bar exam this special exception where, time and time again, we’ve been known to endorse frankly flabbergasting cruelty and safety hazards (see eg, in person bar exams during the height of covid) and just looked the other way? What a disgrace. “

I may have gone off a lil.

“A consistent theme across all reports is a fanatical refusal to stop the exam during an obvious crisis. A Reddit post claims the response was slow with most people simply carrying on with the test while someone next to them might have been dying.”

Absolutely damning levels of apathy. Wow.

excuse me WHAAAAT????