Taking the bar exam in Virginia? Grab a tie

VIRGINIA BEACH

In California, you might see someone show up to take the bar exam in a bathing suit or a clown costume.

In North Carolina, test-takers could be in jeans and a T-shirt.

But not in Virginia.

The roughly 1,500 people scheduled to take the exam today and Wednesday in Roanoke are subject to a mandatory dress code. For men, that's a shirt and tie. For women, it's described more ambiguously as "traditional business attire."

"It reflects a perfectly reasonable policy choice, but one that is a rarity," said Erica Moeser, president of the Madison, Wis.-based National Conference of Bar Examiners. She said she knew of no other

state that has a dress code for bar exam-takers.

"But being rare doesn't mean being wrong," Moeser added.

Though the policy is aimed at potential lawyers, it's not open to debate.

"Recognizing the high calibre of professionalism that has traditionally characterized the bar, the Board is confident that no further discussion of this topic will be necessary," says a notice from the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners.

Norfolk attorney Anita O. Poston, a member of that board, said the business-attire requirement reflects the profession that test-takers are hoping to enter.

"They take an approach that if you want to be an officer of the court, you ought to be dressed that way for a licensing exam," Moeser said.

For test-takers, it may have been a while since they wore a tie, however.

Virginia Beach attorney Ronald Slaven, who took the bar exam in February, said most law students wore collegelike attire in school.

"To be in a suit for that whole time would probably be new to a lot of them," he said.

Moeser said a lot of the attire at exams around the United States reflects the local temperature.

"In the February bar exam in Bismarck, N.D., you're not going to see a lot of Speedos," she said.

Fluctuations in temperature can add to the pressure when taking an exam for which most people have been preparing for at least three years.

The tension in the room during the bar exam can be cut with a knife, Poston said.

One year, a man wearing a red jacket in the stands at the Roanoke Civic Center, where the summer exam is administered, unnerved one of the bar applicants, she said.

"I wouldn't want somebody wearing a bathing suit or a clown outfit next to me," Poston said.

Slaven said his instructors warned him to dress conservatively and not try to push the envelope.

For the most part, Virginia bar-takers follow those rules.

"Every now and then, there's a guy who comes in without a tie, but it isn't really a problem," Poston said.

Even at the national level, major impropriety is rare, according to Moeser.

"We know of no streakers taking the bar exam," she said.

Pilot news researcher Maureen Watts contributed to this report.

Jen McCaffery, (757) 222-5119, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com