The Ninth Circuit court recently denied an 81-year-old California law student’s request for late bar admissions test due to exceptional circumstances, ruling that the student failed to make a claim under federal law. The student, Douglas Mercer Pell, was attending an unaccredited California school and sought an exception to take the bar admissions test late as he was assisting with his wife’s liver transplant. According to original Bloomberg coverage.
Attempting to draw attention to potential loopholes in admission principles, the central issue resided on the grounds of incompetency of California State Bar’s advisory interventions in delicate instances such as these.
Yet, the Ninth Circuit’s ruling was clear: the California State Bar, serving purely in an advisory capacity, cannot infringe on applicant rights unless there’s a decision by the California Supreme Court to adopt or reject the state bar’s recommendations. Words from Judge Sandra S. Ikuta of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit confirmed the stance.
For now, it remains a closed case. Yet, the considerations brought to the surface here may push the legal community to re-evaluate the current stipulations around test-taking exceptions and the broader conversation about age-related challenges within the legal education system.