cuore

I hope someone can tell me what to do. My husband has finished law school, and also a master degree in law. When he comes here what is he supposed to do in order to start working in his profession?
The only thing I know is the evaluation of the diplomas, but is there anything else to do, since he did not study here in USA?
Thanks in advance,
cuore

Mrtravel

cuore wrote:
    > I hope someone can tell me what to do. My husband has finished law
    > school, and also a master degree in law. When he comes here what is he
    > supposed to do in order to start working in his profession?

It depends on the state he wants to practice in.
You should look for information from that state's bar association.
I supect most, if not all, have a web presence.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

In order to practice law, you have to be admitted to the bar, usually in the state where you practice. [I'd say "always" but for the fact that one can practice Federal administrative law such as immigration by being a member of ANY state bar, or patent law if admitted to practice before the U.S. patent office].

The rules seem to be more relaxed in their enforcement for "in house" lawyers. For example, I have a friend who is a member of the New York bar, but works in the legal department of a large corporation in Los Angeles.

He should inquire with the State Bar of the state in which he will live -- they will have standards to admission of foreign attorneys. It is much more likely than not that he will have to take and pass a three day bar exam -- which is usually administered the last week of February and July [as a result of the "multi-state" exam given on the Wednesday of that week and which is used in about 80% of US jurisdictions]. The speed of grading and completion of the background checks depends upon the jurisdiction.

BTW, I took the bar exam in a second state 15 years out of law school and my daughters were amused that Dad was doing "homework" for two months before the exam.

Mr. Z19

Hi,

I am a foreign lawyer, came to the US to study my master in law (LL.M.), just sat for the NY Bar last July and am currently waiting for the results.

I am getting married in 2 weeks to a USC, and will start the AOS process.

It is easier for foreign trained lawyers to be admitted to take the bars of NY, CA and VA.

Have a look at the following publication by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (charter X):


http://www.ncbex.org/pubs/pdf/2003CompGuide.pdf

Regards,

Mrtravel

Mr. Z19 wrote:

    > Hi,

    > I am a foreign lawyer, came to the US to study my master in law
    > (LL.M.), just sat for the NY Bar last July and am currently waiting for
    > the results.

One question? Is it a multiple choice test with only one correct answer?

Thanks,

Mr. Z19

The Bar Exam normally has 200 multiple-choice questions with 1 correct answer, and the previous day there are essay questions. It varies in every state.

Dekka's Angel

To get licensed you almost always have to take some or all of the following:

The Multistate Examination - multiple choice, given in all states, 1 full day. This covers the federal law.

The State-Specific Bar - this varies completely by state. In California this is 2 days, consisting of performance tests (mini-essays, focused on issue spotting) and full essays, across some subset of 13 testable subjects (ranging from criminal to family law to constitutional law, etc.).

The MPRE - Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam - the ethics exam. It is a separate 1-day exam, based on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The MPRE is multiple choice.

DCMark

As mentioned, I think only CA and NY allow non-US law school graduates to sit for the bar. Perhaps VA as well.

For other states you must attend an accredited law school. Which means a US law school.

Passing the bar exam is not easy for a non-US trained attorney. You have to learn all this new stuff.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

I'm admited in two states, one of which was strictly essay -- two days of three 2 1/2 hour sessions each with three essay questions -- a total of 18 fact situations averaging about 10 issues each -- pretty much you had to be prepared to spot and lightly hit 180 issues accross 21 subject areas.

Its been 28 years since I took the California Bar -- when I took it, it consisted of three 3 1/2 hour essay sessions where you answered 4 out of 5 questions. The middle day was the "Multi-state" examination which was two 3 1/2 hour sessions of 100 multiple choice questions each. There was a 3 1/2 hour legal ethics exam which can be taken in concurrence with the general bar or at another time -- I took it "early" [first time that was allowed].

The multiple choice questions give you a choice between a) unlikely b) probably not c) what are they smoking? and d) you got to be kidding? You can safely eliminate c) and d) and then flip a coin between a) and b) -- and do this 200 times.

I've been on the other end of things having been on the Commission that drafted the Immigration Specialization examination. I hadn't realized that there was an art to drafting a bar exam questions. In fact, there is a lot of literature on the field.

In one of the exams, we drafted 20 multiple choice questions. Although the exam was to provide 4 choices per question, we were required to provide an alternative 5th choice to the powers that be that actually approved the examination. So, on one question we gave options A, B, C & D with B the correct answer. We also gave option E as an alternative option. Well, a court case came out and the correct answer changed from B to C. I thought we had dodged a bullet. However, the powers that be thought answer E read better than answer C so they changed it. By the time we discovered it -- it was two late.

In their comments, EVERY lawyer remembered the one question in a 7 hour exam that didn't have a correct answer! And they were right -- we had to throw out the question.

John Henry

Who the hell do you think you are coming over here and thinking you can be a lawyer? If your the immigrant get down to Burger King and start serving ass hole!

Matthew Udall

Ahh, the California Bar Exam. I could type for hours about the bar exam.

I took my general Bar Exam in Oakland, at a convention center. It was a “huge� room, with tables side by side, row by row, occupying the entire room. Each table had a proctor to hand out supplies and watch over the test takers. There must have been literally hundreds of test takers for this particular bar exam (my wild guess would be 500 to 700 people sitting for the exam in this particular facility).

The test takers are seated somewhere in the room based on alphabetical order. Since my last name starts with “U�, I was located at a table near the back of the room.

The test is 3 days long. The first half of the 1st and 3rd days consisted of 3 essay exams. The second half of the 1st and 3rd day consisted of a “performance� test. I could spend hours talking about different types of performance test questions they can give, however to keep it short what they basically do is give you a body of law to work with and a factual situation and assignment by a fictional boss asking you to come up with (argue) a solution based on the facts and law.

On day 2, we did 100 multiple choice questions before lunch, and 100 more after lunch. These multiple choice questions are by far the most difficult portion of the test (for most test takers). Essays can be answered with anything between a well thought out essay to simply putting down an answer in outline format, however multiple choice questions don’t usually leave any room for judgment by the grader (you either get it right or you don’t, and I believe most people fail the exam because they don’t score well in the multiple choice questions). They are usually compound, complex questions (and will often have answers like “a and b�, or “a b and c but not d�).

I started practicing old multiple choice bar exam questions about a year before the test, and it really took a lot of practice and reading to figure out all of the tricks they can pull to throw one off towards the incorrect answer. They don’t tell you (after taking the test) how many you got right, (they just tell you whether you pass or fail the exam), but I honestly had the feeling I was the first person in the history of the California Bar to score 100% on the multiple choice (I had the feeling that I knew why each and every choice I made was the correct choice, and more importantly why each and every choice I did not select was the incorrect answer… I did not guess the answer to a single question).

The bar exam can be a stressful thing, however I sort of enjoyed it (and really over prepared). In fact, I was so into preparing that I found it hard to “turn it off� after the exam, and I found myself still reading and practicing multiple choice questions up to 3 days after the exam was over :-).

There are nightmare stories about people having to take the bar over and over again before passing (I recall hearing of one person taking it 20 to 25 times… don’t know if that is really true or if its simply bar-exam folklore). My buddy Rod had to take it twice. I recall talking to Rod about the bar. During one of the days of testing, apparently Rod had to get up to use the rest room. Rod said that while in the rest room, he could hear one guy in one stall crying like a baby, and another guy in another stall vomiting.

I was really making good progress on my performance test at the end of day 3 (or am I remembering it backwards, and it was the 3 essays at the end of the day), and I slammed down my pencil and had the proctor come pick up my test materials about 30 to 45 minutes before the end of the test (I was probably the 3rd or 4th person to finish by that time). I just “knew� that I kicked the test’s ass, and I was getting out of there. As I walked the long walk towards the entrance of the building, I had to pass between the columns of tables all full of test takers madly writing in their blue books. I recall making eye contact with a few test takers as I was walking out, and from the look of surprise and confusion on their faces, it seemed to me like most were probably thinking, “hey... don’t quit now, its almost over�!

A few months later, I called the automated phone system and found out I had passed the exam.

Andrew Defaria

John Henry wrote:

    > Who the hell do you think you are coming over here and thinking you
    > can be a lawyer? If your the immigrant get down to Burger King and
    > start serving ass hole!

But then you'd be out of a job! :-)
===
Obligatory witty line: Why does mineral water that has trickled through
mountains for centuries have a "use by" date?

Mrtravel

Andrew DeFaria wrote:

    > John Henry wrote:
    >
    >> Who the hell do you think you are coming over here and thinking you
    >> can be a lawyer? If your the immigrant get down to Burger King and
    >> start serving ass hole!
    >
    >
    > But then you'd be out of a job! :-)

Nah, a better qualified 16 year old did that to him.

Dekkas Angel

I wouldn't know because I can't read and I won't apologize when I am wrong.
I must be a lying troll who cant read.
"John Henry" <member226@british_expats.com> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Originally posted by cuore
    > > I hope someone can tell me what to do. My husband has finished law
    > > school, and also a master degree in law. When he comes here what is
    > > he supposed to do in order to start working in his profession?
    > > The only thing I know is the evaluation of the diplomas, but is there
    > > anything else to do, since he did not study here in USA?
    > > Thanks in advance,
    > > cuore
    > Who the hell do you think you are coming over here and thinking you can
    > be a lawyer? If your the immigrant get down to Burger King and start
    > serving ass hole!
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Dekkas Angel

I wouldn't know because I can't read and I won't apologize when I am wrong.
I must be a lying troll who cant read.
"Mr. Z19" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Hi,
    > I am a foreign lawyer, came to the US to study my master in law
    > (LL.M.), just sat for the NY Bar last July and am currently waiting for
    > the results.
    > I am getting married in 2 weeks to a USC, and will start the AOS
    > process.
    > It is easier for foreign trained lawyers to be admitted to take the bars
    > of NY, CA and VA.
    > Have a look at the following publication by the National Conference of
    > Bar Examiners (charter X):
    > http://www.ncbex.org/pubs/pdf/2003CompGuide.pdf
    > Regards,
    > --
    > Posted via http://britishexpats.com