This article originally appeared in The Bar Examiner print edition, Spring 2024 (Vol. 93, No. 1), pp. 1-2.
By John J. McAlaryIn my column this past fall, I commented on the many dedicated and extraordinary individuals across the country who work tirelessly behind the scenes in bar admissions to ensure public protection and improve the legal profession. In my 26 years in this field, I cannot think of anyone who has been more dedicated to, and has had a more profound influence on, bar admissions than Diane F. Bosse. Sadly, Diane passed away unexpectedly on March 17, 2024, in a car accident in southwest Florida, where she spent winters with her beloved husband Coleman Volgenau. For those of us who knew Diane, her sudden and tragic passing was a shock from which we are still trying to recover. I dedicate this column to Diane.
Diane worked for the New York State Board of Law Examiner for 40 years. She started in 1979 as a part-time legal assistant for a board member, grading exams and assisting in writing bar exam questions. In 1998, she was appointed by the New York Court of Appeals to serve as a member of the Board and in 2001 she became the first woman and the youngest person to serve as its chair. She continued to serve as chair until her retirement from the Board in September 2020.
From 1999 to 2008 Diane served on the Board of Trustees of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, including a year as chair in 2006–2007. Diane’s dedication and effort was not limited to bar admissions. She also worked tirelessly to improve legal education through her many years of voluntary service to the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. She served on the ABA Bar Admissions Committee from 2002 to 2004, the ABA Standards Review Committee from 2004 to 2007, and the ABA Accreditation Committee from 2007 to 2013. In 2014 she was appointed to the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. She served on the ABA Council until 2021 and chaired it in 2019–2020.
I had the great honor and privilege of working closely with Diane, first as counsel to the New York Board of Law Examiners when I was hired in 1998 and later when she appointed me Executive Director for the Board in 2005. I witnessed firsthand how tirelessly she worked and how dedicated and passionate she was to our Board’s efforts. She had an incredible work ethic and a razor-sharp intellect, but she also had a great sense of humor. She was detail-oriented and had very high standards. She expected other board members, my staff (including me), and even the proctors at our test sites to perform at their best. She challenged us and raised the level and quality of our work when she became chair. We continue to strive for her standards today.
As chair of the Board, Diane led with a steady hand and inspired the Board to draft challenging but fair bar exam questions to ensure that we appropriately tested for minimum competence. During her tenure, she led us through a standard-setting process resulting in an increase in the New York passing score in 2005, a comprehensive study of the impact on the increase in the passing score that was unique for its time, drafting recommendations for our Court to align its eligibility rules more closely to the ABA Standards and Rules of Procedure for Approval of Law Schools, adoption of the Uniform Bar Exam in 2015, and preparations for the first remote bar exam administration before she retired in fall 2020.
Diane performed her work for the Board of Law Examiners, NCBE, and the ABA Council while also practicing law full time. If Diane had any fault, it was her inability to say no. On several occasions I told her she had already given so much of her time; Diane would often respond that she couldn’t say no when she believed she could make a positive contribution. We should be so thankful that she gave freely of her time because bar admissions, legal education, and the bar are all better for it. When Diane was finally planning to wind down her bar admissions work, she was asked to serve on NCBE’s Testing Task Force for the NextGen bar examination—and she agreed. Diane’s attention to detail and dedication to producing the best work product possible is evident in the final content scope outline. When I am asked about this document, I respond that we should be confident that it is a fair and thorough publication because Diane had a hand in drafting it.
Diane was also an accomplished practitioner and received numerous awards for her legal work. In 2014, she was named Lawyer of the Year by the Bar Association of Erie County, the county that encompasses her beloved hometown of Buffalo. In 2016, she was named as one of the New York Law Journal’s Top Women in Law. Her other awards included the New York State Bar Association Award for Excellence in Public Service and the Distinguished Alumnus Award for Public Service from the University of Buffalo Law Alumni Association. In 2023, Diane was awarded the ABA’s prestigious Robert J. Kutak Award for her collective contributions to the collaboration of the legal academy, the bench, and the bar.
On April 27, 2024, I had the honor of attending Diane’s memorial service in Clarence, New York, a suburb of Buffalo. The reverence with which Diane is held was exhibited by the great distances that attendees travelled to honor her. NCBE president Judy Gundersen and her immediate predecessor Erica Moeser traveled from Madison, Wisconsin, to attend the service. Many former NCBE chairs also came from across the country to pay their respects to Diane and to support her husband Coleman and their extended family. After the service, those of us connected to NCBE gathered at the hotel to cry and laugh as we reminisced about Diane. It was a fitting tribute.
When we disagreed and debated over how to handle some Board matters, Diane would abruptly tell me: “We are not doing that.” But she would explain her position to me and often changed my view. She was often proven right. I grew to greatly respect and admire Diane’s dedication to our Board, NCBE, and the ABA Council. I respected how hard she worked and how she inspired us to strive for perfection. She inspired me to be a better lawyer and administrator. She became a role model and mentor to me; for that I will be eternally grateful. I, the Board Members and staff with whom she worked, and her many friends through her connections with NCBE and the ABA will always miss her.
Kindest regards,
John J. McAlary
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