Adjunct Professor David Marshall, who serves as Executive Director of the Center for Labor & Employment Law, recently wrote an article for the New York State Bar Association Journal entitled “How to Diagnose What Ails the New York Law Exam? Call the Exam Doctor.” Here is a description:

The open-book, take-at-home New York Law Exam that bar applicants must pass to obtain admission to practice in New York has become a test of how quickly answers to questions can be found in the law outline posted on the Board of Law Examiners’ website, not a test of applicants’ knowledge of and ability to apply basic principles of New York law.  Widespread demands for the revision, or complete elimination, of the NYLE are premised on a belief that the NYLE operates largely as a gatekeeping device designed to haze law students or, at worst, erect discriminatory barriers to entry into the legal profession.  New York’s decision to adopt the 9-hour NextGen Bar Exam in July 2028 gives the BOLE the opportunity to supplement the NextGen exam with a 3-hour, New York-specific law exam that has been designed and validated by professional psychometricians to be valid, reliable, and non-discriminatory.  How that can be done is detailed in Adjunct Professor David Marshall’s interview with Dr. Paul Sackett, a professional psychometrician, which was published in the Spring 2025 issue of the New York State Bar Association Journal.