Sixty-Five-Year-Old Man Takes Bar Exam

In my second post of this series I mentioned that one part of the application process is completing a character and fitness questionnaire. Here are some of the questions the applicant must answer:

• Please provide a driving record from the DMV of each state in which you have ever been licensed to drive.
• Have you applied, or are you currently applying, to take a bar examination or any attorney’s examination or applied for admission to practice law, or to practice before an administrative agency in any state, jurisdiction, or country?
• If you attended an out of state law school, please submit a copy of your law school application(s) and include any amendments.
• List complete information regarding all college/university attendance.
• List every permanent or physical address where you have resided, including the present…since your 18th birthday, with exact address of each, and the month and year of the beginning and ending of each such residence.
• List all employment you have ever held beginning after your 18th birthday.
• List all outstanding debt.

Applicants are also asked to provide multiple personal references, and applicants who have previously practiced law are asked to provide contact information for attorneys and clients who knew the applicant.

All of these questions are intended to help assure that those admitted to practice are truthful people who will behave that way as lawyers. Nevertheless, as we can see when we read reports of bar disciplinary actions, some attorneys do behave contrary to the way they should, as many others do every day.

I’ve not yet received a letter from the Board of Law Examiners stating the status of my application or that an investigator has been assigned to my file. However, I am glad to have received a message last week from my credit monitoring service, informing me that the Board has pulled my credit report. So the investigation is underway.