News Releases

State Bar commits to protecting the privacy of Bar applicants against intrusive requests for personal information

Contact: Laura Ernde

415-538-2283

barcomm@calbar.ca.gov

SAN FRANCISCO, July 15, 2016 – A San Francisco Superior Court trial began this week over access to the State Bar of California’s information about bar applicants’ personal information including race, law school, grade-point average, LSAT scores and bar scores.
 
The lawsuit was brought by UCLA law professor Richard Sander and other petitioners who seek 36 years of detailed information about bar applicants. The State Bar opposes the release of the data because it violates promises it made to law students regarding privacy and limited use of their records and personal information. No other state bar has released this kind of data.
 
“This case has always been about protecting the privacy of people who take the bar exam,” Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, Executive Director of the State Bar of California. “The privacy rights of bar members and people of color in the legal profession and law schools who may be unfairly singled out are of paramount importance to the State Bar.”
 
The State Bar has maintained that the data cannot be released in a manner that would protect privacy without substantially altering the data. A release of the data would violate privacy because it would still make it possible for applicants to be identified with bar exam scores, race and other information. The California Public Records Act, which the State Bar complies with, does not require an agency to amend records or create new records. State law also protects the confidentiality of the data if releasing it may identify an individual applicant.

Harvard professor and national expert Dr. Latanya Sweeney testified this week, clarifying that this particular data set could not be anonymized in a way that would adequately protect individual privacy.