“The danger, though, is that committees might overuse their condition power and impose time-consuming and costly conditions on applicants who would practice ethically without conditions. Many non-lawyers don’t know that the bar admission process requires new lawyers to pass a character and fitness test before they can practice law. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that a bar applicant was properly denied when he sat for an earlier bar exam knowing he had not completed all of his law school’s graduation requirements and later did not show up for a character-and-fitness hearing.
Instead, the ABA urges that bar admission questions be limited to issues involving “conduct or behavior that impairs an applicant’s ability to practice law in a competent, ethical and professional manner.” Washington state is the latest to propose eliminating such questions, as Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Tennessee have already done.Sometimes, character-and-fitness committees recommend that certain applicants be denied admission to the bar, usually because the applicant has committed one of the 13 listed acts or there is a pattern of misconduct. The National Council of Bar Examiners (NCBEX) provides Character & Fitness evaluations for some jurisdictions. “Other common issues include academic misconduct, excessive traffic tickets and delinquent debt.”Applicants with criminal backgrounds, academic misconduct or financial misconduct may not be allowed to take the bar exam in the first place in some jurisdictions. The bar told me, I had them resend the letters. “Committees occasionally have used applicants’ arguable lack of candor, even relatively minor instances, as an excuse to deny applicants whose pasts bother the committee members. Preparation After you’re asked to write a letter of recommendation supporting an applicant’s admission to the state bar, make sure you …
The bar uses these letters of recommendation to evaluate the applicant’s character and overall fitness and ability to practice law.
Try as they might, committees do not have a proven track record of accurately predicting problem lawyers.”Another criticism of the current process relates to how the system treats bar applicants versus how the system treats lawyers for professional misconduct. To become a fully licensed, card-carrying member of the bar, graduates must clear a character-and-fitness inquiry. “They involve a combination of smaller and more remote crimes, such as disorderly conduct convictions in college.”It’s actually a failure to disclose the previous conduct, even seemingly minor, that lands applicants in hot water, ethics experts say.“The duty of candor is critical,” explains Swisher. NCBE Account Login Learn more about the NCBE Account Email. “As a member of the ABA for well over 40 years, I have treasured and benefited enormously from my association with wonderful, experienced, wise and public spirited lawyers from throughout the United States — indeed, internationally.”Free law student membership includes access to Quimbee, membership in 5 free ABA specialty groups, standard ABA lawyer discounts, and more.Before the Bar is the blog of the ABA Law Student Division.