Former Soviet country studies Virginia bar exam

ROANOKE — As more than 1,600 candidates sat down for the Virginia bar exam in Roanoke this summer, a group of observers from an Eastern European nation were closely watching the testing process.

As the now-independent former Soviet republic of Georgia works to stabilize a democratic government, officials in its legal system sought to improve the qualifications of judges and lawyers.

Part of the process was reforming the testing process for lawyer candidates, and Virginia was chosen as a model to study.

A group of six representatives from Georgia was on hand July 30 and 31 as 1,634 would-be Virginia lawyers grappled with the Virginia essay exam and the multiple-choice multistate exam at the Roanoke Civic Center.

The Georgians’ visit marks continuing efforts to cultivate democratic institutions in the former Soviet Union.

Soon after the breakup of the Soviet empire in the early 90s, the American Bar Association established the Central and Eastern European Law Initiative or “CEELI” to foster institutions based on the rule of law in the newly independent nations, according to information from the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners.

Georgia, which straddles Eastern Europe and Western Asia, was offered the services of bar exam consultant Jean C. Gaskill of California to help create an examination for Georgian judges. The old system was based on appointments.

Recently, Gaskill was asked by Georgia officials to help revise the bar examination for Georgia lawyers. When the Georgians wanted to observe bar testing in the U.S., Gaskill suggested a visit to Virginia. Gaskill has been a consultant for the VBBE for several years, helping to edit essay questions and develop objective grading guidelines for the Virginia test, the VBBE said.

The Georgian observers had a look at all aspects of the Virginia bar exam process, said VBBE secretary-treasurer W. Scott Street.

They were able to see how staffers set up the examination rooms, how the questions were kept secure before distribution and how the answers were collected and preserved for grading.

Most candidates use laptop computers to take the test. Assigned to individual seats, the candidates are given a thumb drive that loads the test-taking software on the laptop.

The test takers, dressed in business attire, may be tense, but the atmosphere is hushed. The dress code probably contributes to the apparent calm, Street said.

The answers are saved on the USB thumb drives, which carry yellow tags. The thumb drives get turned in, Street explained, but the answers also remain – encrypted – in the software on the laptop. If something happens to a thumb drive, the answers could be recovered from the laptop, Street said.

While the candidates grappled with the Tuesday afternoon essay session, their morning essay answers were being analyzed and printed out, Street said. The program used by the VBBE counts the words used in the essay answers. If the word count seems short, the program will flag it. VBBE staffers can call the applicant and check if the answer is really complete.

“It’s just a good way to double check,” Street said.

While students are writing their answers, the software does a complete backup every two minutes, Street said. An untimely computer crash becomes a mere inconvenience, not a fatal event.

Some of that technology could be put to use in Georgia.

“We are also planning a move to computer-based exams,” said Irina Lortkipandize, an advisor with the joint east-west legal improvement project in Georgia.

She said the prior practice in Georgia was to provide a two-volume set of questions and answers – 3,000 of them – for prospective lawyers to study. Preparation became a matter of rote memorization over a month’s time.

Now, the questions are not published ahead of time, and legal study is more important, Lortkipandize said.

Candidates can decide which field of law to qualify for – civil, criminal or general. There are three separate tests.

Candidates have to graduate from law school. The pass rate is 75 percent, she said, and successful examinees then have to apply to the Georgia Bar Association for a license in the field of qualification.

The license is valid for seven years, Lortkipandize said.

After the Georgian delegation left Virginia, they planned to attend a grader training session at the offices of the National Conference of Bar Examiners in Wisconsin.