Law360: Rape Questions Could Be Next Focus Of Bar App Reforms

February 5. 2024

Staff Attorney Kel O’Hara is featured in a Law360 story about a question included on many state Bar Association application questionnaires requiring applicants to disclose if they have ever applied for a restraining or protective order, including survivors/victims of gender-based and sexual violence involved in Title IX proceedings. Applicants who answer “yes” are required to “provide full details” and documentation.

“It forces her to discuss and disclose this very personal, traumatic experience in this professional setting,” O’Hara said. “In some ways, it turns her into a suspect, and she’s a survivor.”

… “She was really worried about what that would mean for her as a young female [law] associate,” O’Hara said. “She was worried that people who are above her would see her as damaged or fragile in some way if they found out that she was a survivor, or alternatively, that she’d be seen as sort of a complainer or someone who couldn’t handle pressure, who wasn’t trustworthy, and would report everything.”

Read the article.