Are some lawyers getting an unfair advantage in the bar exam?

A growing number of law school graduates are demanding extra time or a solitary place to take their bar exam, claiming they have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to organizations that administer the test. But their ADHD diagnoses, rendered by psychologists and other mental health experts, are often based on flawed clinical evaluations, a University of Kentucky neuropsychologist concludes.

These latest findings raise questions about whether some people are getting an unwarranted advantage when taking professional licensing exams or academic tests, says John D. Ranseen, PhD, an associate professor of psychiatry at the university?s College of Medicine. Many other professions, as well as schools, are seeing a rise in the number of people claiming ADHD in requesting special accommodations to take exams, he notes.

In the study, Ranseen, who is often asked to evaluate requests for bar-exam accommodations, reviewed 50 cases from five states in which lawyers requested special arrangements for taking the test based on a diagnosis of ADHD. (The federal Americans with Disabilities Act requires that students with learning disabilities be given reasonable accommodations for taking tests.)

In most of the cases, evaluators appear not to have used full ADHD criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV, Ranseen reports in the latest issue of Professional Psychology: Research and Practice (Vol. 29, No. 5, p. 450?459). Also, many evaluators appear to have based their diagnoses primarily on cognitive tests, even though such tests have never proven to be an appropriate way to diagnose ADHD, he says. These practices may lead the clinicians to overlook depression, anxiety or other conditions that could cause the person?s concentration problems, he adds.

A person diagnosed with ADHD doesn?t necessarily deserve special accommodations when taking a professional licensing test, Ranseen adds. The federal law specifies that the disability must clearly impact the individual?s major life activities. Difficulty in test taking, in the absence of other clear evidence of impairment, may not meet that standard, he says. And people who have successfully completed law school without any accommodations may raise suspicions when they suddenly claim an entitlement to special arrangements for taking a licensing test, he notes.

?S. Sleek