The deans of all three Washington state law schools are calling on the Washington Supreme Court to grant diploma privilege to hundreds of affected graduates.
The push follows the chaotic cancellation of the July 2026 administration of the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam due to widespread technical failures.
Tamara Lawson, dean of the University of Washington School of Law, has argued that every single test-taker was impacted by the technical breakdown.
“There were absolutely no test-takers at the July 2026 Washington bar exam that were not impacted. Emergency diploma privilege is the only remedy for all impacted,” Lawson said.
Lawson made the comments to the ABA Journal, as the debate over how to remedy the failed exam continues to intensify across the legal community.
The deans are specifically calling for diploma privilege to extend to those test-takers with accommodations who did manage to complete the exam before it was cancelled.
Lawson argues that completing the exam under those circumstances should not disqualify anyone from receiving the same relief granted to those who could not finish.
Some test-takers with accommodations have voluntarily come forward to share firsthand accounts confirming that technical problems affected their sittings as well.
Those candidates reported that the stress of taking the exam, while knowing that technology had already failed most of their colleagues, weighed heavily on them throughout.
They worried throughout the examination period that the same technology failures would strike them at any moment, undermining their ability to perform.
The NextGen Uniform Bar Exam was being rolled out across several jurisdictions when the Washington administration collapsed under the weight of its technical problems.
Diploma privilege, which allows law graduates to be admitted to the bar without sitting a formal examination, has historically been granted only in exceptional circumstances.
Washington state now faces growing pressure to recognise that the failed July sitting created conditions that made a fair examination impossible for all candidates involved.
The outcome of the Washington Supreme Court’s deliberations could set an important precedent for how jurisdictions respond to technologically compromised bar examinations going forward.