A law graduate who took the bar exam at the University of Denver this week tested positive for COVID-19 after the in-person test was administered, school officials confirmed Thursday.
The test, held Monday and Tuesday at DU and other sites in Denver and Boulder, became an issue of contention this summer after Colorado law school graduates launched a campaign asking officials to reconsider gathering large groups of people inside for two days during the pandemic.
“The University’s COVID response team was promptly informed of this development and has instituted appropriate protocols to be used in such instances, including contact tracing,” Jon Stone, a DU spokesman, said in a statement.
“In circumstances when a community member or visitor to campus informs the University of Denver that they have tested positive for COVID-19, the university initiates a contact-tracing protocol so that anyone who may have been exposed to the virus is promptly notified. Safety and security of the DU community is the highest priority.”
Jessica Yates, attorney regulation counsel for the Colorado Supreme Court, said the examinee informed the state’s highest court Wednesday evening that they had taken a COVID-19 test prior to the bar exam in anticipation of a surgical procedure, and the test came back positive after the exam was finished.
The examinee, who wore a face mask, was asymptomatic, Yates said, and passed two temperature checks.
Yates said 20 people shared a testing room with the COVID-positive test-taker.
“We have been in touch with the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment,” Yates said. “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.”
A group of recent law graduates who had pushed for an alternative to an in-person bar exam issued a joint statement Thursday in response to the news.
Their statement said contract tracers sent an email to some exam attendees Wednesday, alerting them that they had been in the “general vicinity” of someone who had tested position for the virus.
“Most concerning, the email told applicants that ‘it is not necessary that you self-quarantine at this time but you should be vigilant with symptom monitoring,’ ” the statement said. “This advice was given despite applicants spending roughly 16 hours in a single room, over two days, with close to 30 other people. This email was not sent to all applicants who took the bar exam at (DU), which is problematic as applicants who were not seated in the same room were still exposed to each other throughout the two days of testing. Applicants often crossed paths in the hallway when depositing or collecting personal items and during lunch breaks and bathroom breaks.”
Earlier in the month, the law school graduates raised concerns about potential exposure to COVID-19, asking the Colorado Supreme Court to invoke “diploma privilege” as some other states have, meaning University of Colorado and University of Denver law school graduates who applied for the July 2020 bar exam and passed the character and fitness requirements would be licensed to practice law without taking the 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. “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,”
After the law school graduates’ campaign, the state Supreme Court updated an earlier rule to allow graduates who don’t want to take the July bar exam to start working as lawyers in limited capacities and under the supervision of a qualifying attorney while they wait to take the February test, but didn’t not go as far as to invoke diploma privilege.
Graduates argued many law firms simply wouldn’t hire people with provisional law licenses and that the accommodation didn’t address the health concerns of holding an exam amid an ongoing pandemic.
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