Law graduate tests positive for coronavirus after taking in-person bar exam

A law school graduate who urged the Colorado Supreme Court to reconsider hosting an in-person bar exam during the pandemic tested positive for COVID-19 after taking the test.

School officials confirmed that the asymptomatic examinee took the test last week at the University of Denver after passing two temperature checks, The Denver Post reported.

The test taker was in a room with 20 other people but was required to wear a face mask and practice social distancing. 

“We have been in touch with the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment,” said Jessica Yates, attorney regulation counsel for the Colorado Supreme Court. “Because of the wearing of masks, particularly with six-foot distancing, they do not deem the testing environment as ‘close contact’ with a COVID positive person.”

Bar exam protocols did not require graduates be tested for COVID-19. Those taking the bar had temperature checks and screening questions before entry and were encouraged to forgo indoor restaurants, gyms and large gatherings in the weeks before the exam.

Sydney Donovan told 9News that she found out she had tested positive mere minutes after finishing her test.

She said she was required to get a precautionary test before an upcoming scheduled surgery. Donovan said she had “no idea” she was infected because she had been at home studying for months.

“Your phone is off through the whole test,” Donovan told the local outlet. “I turned on my phone after the test was over to have a voicemail from a nurse at my orthopedic surgeon’s office saying, ‘I need to talk to you about your COVID results and your surgery.’ ”

Earlier this month, a group of recent law graduates started a petition raising concerns to the Colorado Supreme Court about potentially being exposed to COVID-19 during bar examinations, The Denver Post reported.

They asked the state’s highest court to invoke “diploma privilege,” which would allow law school graduates who had applied for the July 2020 bar exam and passed the character and fitness requirements to be licensed to practice law without taking the test.

Oregon, Utah and Washington have granted diploma privilege for law graduates and other states have postponed the exam until the fall.

The court instead updated a rule that allows graduates to start working in limited capacities and under the supervision of a qualifying attorney while they wait to take the February test.

“We have been concerned about this exact scenario and have spoken out about it since the beginning of July,” the graduates said in their statement after Donovan’s positive COVID-19 test. “We hope other jurisdictions holding in-person bar examinations will take this event as a lesson that no matter how safe you think you are being, you cannot prevent an asymptomatic carrier, including those acting in good faith and completely unaware of their infected status, from sitting the exam.”