Washington state has scrapped its entire July NextGen bar exam administration after a convention centre hardware failure left roughly 645 applicants unable to log in.
The state has offered affected candidates a tentative September makeup date, a transfer to the February 2027 sitting, or a full refund of their examination fees.
The catastrophic failure has renewed scrutiny of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which was widely regarded as the authoritative body on bar examination administration across the country.
California faced widespread mockery for attempting to develop its own bar exam independently, yet the supposed experts at the national level have now demonstrated they are capable of the same failures.
Maryland emerged as a relative success story from this week’s rollout, with one site going offline for under an hour before applicants completed day one on schedule.
By the standards set elsewhere during this week’s NextGen administration, Maryland’s minor disruption has been described as a triumph rather than a setback.
On the business side of the legal world, Milbank has once again moved first on summer bonuses, declining to wait for Cravath to set the market as has traditionally been the custom.
For the third straight year, Milbank opened summer bonus season independently, paying associates and special counsel between $6,000 and $25,000 depending on class year, with payments due by August 31.
Gibson Dunn made significant lateral moves by pulling six litigation partners out of Wachtell, including executive committee co-chair William Savitt, in a hire that drew considerable industry attention.
A seventh name on the Gibson Dunn lateral list quietly disappeared from the announced deal after a TikTok video surfaced showing him in a compromising situation with an associate.
In political and legal news, President Trump announced on Truth Social his intention to seek rehearing of his 6-3 birthright citizenship loss in Trump v. Barbara, but subsequently allowed the 25-day window under Rule 44 to close without filing anything.
Todd Blanche’s confirmation vote before the Senate Judiciary Committee has been postponed after senators Cornyn and Tillis demanded written assurances that Blanche has so far declined to provide.
The question of Anthony Fauci’s pardon continues to generate legal debate, with commentators noting that while the pardon theoretically prevents him from invoking the Fifth Amendment, the existing caselaw never contemplated a bad faith investigation of this nature.