California bar exam lawsuits against vendor consolidated

By Sara Merken

June 3 (Reuters) - A California federal judge on Tuesday consolidated three lawsuits against exam vendor Meazure Learning over California's problem-plagued February bar exam.

U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in Oakland in his order also appointed attorneys from law firms Tycko & Zavareei and Sauder Schelkopf as lead lawyers for the test takers pursuing the proposed class action.

The judge said combining the lawsuits into a single case will promote efficiency and preserve judicial resources.

The lawsuits accuse Meazure Learning of failing to properly administer California's February bar exam, which experienced technical and logistical problems.

The company is also facing a separate lawsuit filed last month by the State Bar of California. The state bar signed a $4.1 million contract with the company in September 2024 to administer the exam.

The company did not oppose the request by plaintiffs' lawyers to consolidate the lawsuits by test takers but urged the judge in an April filing to name only one of the firms as interim lead counsel for the combined case, arguing that the plaintiffs did not show the appointment of two firms "is necessary or would be efficient."

The judge on Tuesday named Annick Persinger of Tycko & Zavareei and Joseph Sauder of Sauder Schelkopf as co-lead counsel.

"These software failures during the February 2025 bar exam disrupted a critical moment in the careers of thousands of test-takers," Persinger and Sauder said in a Tuesday statement. The judge's leadership appointment "will allow us to move the litigation forward and seek relief on behalf of those impacted."

A spokesperson for Birmingham, Alabama-based Meazure Learning and outside lawyers representing the company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The February exam was the debut of California's hybrid remote and in-person test without the components of the national bar exam the state has used for decades — a change that was intended to save as much as $3.8 million annually. But addressing all its problems for the July exam is now expected to add nearly $6 million in costs.