It’s a question that has been percolating for some time and  made more urgent due to the challenges wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic: Is the bar exam even necessary anymore, or should it be scrapped entirely? That was the kickoff question for Law.com’s Future of Legal Education Twitter chat, and the participants held nothing back.

“An exam is useful if it is a valid measure of competence,” replied Deborah Merritt of Ohio State University. “An invalid exam is worse than useless—it’s an artificial barrier to entry.”