Mick Guile is one of about 30 recent law school graduates who planned to join the King County Public Defender's Office this fall.
Guile, a native of Maryland and a 2026 graduate of the University of Maryland Law School, flew into Seattle on Monday to tour apartments before driving to Yakima to take the Washington Bar Exam, a test their future employer strongly suggested they take.
For about 11 weeks, Guile had studied for the exam, which consists of three three-hour blocks and typically takes two days to complete. But after the Washington State Bar Association canceled the test on Tuesday due to a "technology issue," Guile and nearly 700 other prospective attorneys who traveled to the Yakima Convention Center are unsure what will happen next.
"I truly think my job is up in the air now until they get back to us, or I don't know, maybe they'll push our start date back," Guile said in an interview. "But there were definitely a lot of people who, just straight up, were worried that they just wouldn't have a job."
The Washington Bar Association announced Wednesday it had canceled the exam after the technology issue made the test impossible to administer to the 645 applicants registered to take it. According to the association, those affected can either take the test later this year, in February of next year or receive a full refund.
"We sincerely apologize to the candidates who worked so hard to prepare, and we deeply regret that we could not deliver a successful exam experience today," the association said in a statement.
The National Conference for Bar Examiners, which administered a new version of the test for the first time, said about 2,624 applicants in 10 jurisdictions across the country had registered to take the exam. Like Washington, sites in Missouri and Maryland also experienced delays and issues, though applicants were eventually able to continue the exam.
The NCBE attributed the problem in Yakima to an "on-site hardware and configuration issue." According to applicants, in addition to a $700 application fee, they had to pay an additional $150 technology fee.
"Despite extensive efforts by jurisdiction staff, local technical teams, and convention center support personnel, the issue could not be resolved in time to administer the examination," the statement reads.
While the test was scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m., Guile said applicants had trouble connecting to the Wi-Fi and the test nearly immediately. Guile said the on-site tech support "seemed like they weren't familiar" with the software the test was administered on.
"There was this girl in front of me; they told her to restart her computer, like, four times. And every time, she would be like, 'I've already done that,'" Guile said. "And they would be like, 'Well, just do it again.'"
Around 9:30 a.m., applicants were told to disconnect from the network, and half were told to reconnect to a backup network. However, the issue persisted.
By 11 a.m., they were told they would implement a staggered start, where those who could connect would try to start the test, while someone went around the room offering to either take the test in February or receive a refund, before they were sent to lunch early.
At 1 p.m., applicants were told they would not start the test Tuesday, and that the new plan would be to administer the test on Wednesday and Thursday.
"A lot of people had already lined up at their hotel, like begging for an extra night, fighting for spots. People had changed their flights already, because they were like 'OK, they told us to come back tomorrow,' " Guile said. "And then at 5 p.m., they told us it was canceled."
Applicants, and the deans of law schools at the University of Washington, Seattle University and Gonzaga University, have asked the Washington Supreme Court to grant applicants diploma privilege, which would allow graduates of accredited law schools to practice law without passing the exam.
According to a statement issued by Gonzaga University, 110 graduates were affected by the cancellation of the test.
"Our graduates did everything that was asked of them. They completed law school, devoted months to preparing, arranged their lives around the exam, and arrived ready to demonstrate their competence," the university said in a statement. "The failure was not theirs."
According to the university, the Law School hopes to work "collaboratively" with the Washington Supreme Court and the Washington State Bar Association to identify a solution, and believes that diploma privilege "is the fairest available response under these extraordinary circumstances."
"We also have asked the Washington Supreme Court to conduct a thorough and transparent review of the events surrounding the July 2026 bar examination, including convening a public hearing," the statement reads.
Wendy Ferrell, a spokesperson for the Washington state Supreme Court, said in an email Wednesday that there is no timeline for when a decision on diploma privilege will be made, but the "Court is actively working with the WSBA to learn more about what occurred and evaluating all options for a resolution."
For Guile, a decision can't come soon enough.
"I went to sleep, and I woke up checking my email wondering if the Supreme Court had convened at some point and had already voted on it," Guile said. "I mean, I'm probably going to be doing that for the next month, because that would mean that I could continue with everything that I've planned."
Guile said diploma privilege is not a "perfect solution," because a lot of applicants planned to take the test in Washington before moving to other states to practice.
"You can't transfer your score to another state if you have no score," Guile said. "So that's obviously a problem for those groups."
But, they believe diploma privilege would be "such a relief" for the applicants who planned to practice in Washington.
"I feel like diploma privilege would be an acknowledgment of the fact that this was just an absolute disaster," Guile said. "And that it was entirely unfair."
© 2026 The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.). Visit www.spokesman.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
