Tread Carefully: Survivors of sexual assault should not have to disclose that abuse for bar admission, House says
The ABA House of Delegates urged character and fitness entities and other bar admission authorities to provide an exception to victims of sexual violence who choose not to report any related "legal, administrative, law enforcement or academic proceedings" in their applications. (Shutterstock)
Applying to be admitted to the bar often involves listing any encounters you may have had with the justice system. But for some hopeful lawyers, this means having to disclose they have been the victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment or stalking.
The ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence is looking to address this issue. At the 2024 ABA Annual Meeting, the entity asked the House of Delegates to vote in favor of a resolution urging character and fitness entities and other bar admission authorities to provide an exception to victims of these crimes who choose not to report any related “legal, administrative, law enforcement or academic proceedings” in their applications. This could include civil restraining orders and on-campus disciplinary cases in which they were a petitioner or complainant. It could also include complaints filed against survivors “as a tactic of abuse,” the report accompanying Resolution 800 says.
“Jurisdictions effectively require survivors to disclose that they are a victim of abuse and justify how surviving does not affect their ability to practice law,” according to the report. “Importantly, some states require a character and fitness interview, which could require the survivor to discuss their abuse with someone not trained in asking about abuse.”
If a bar applicant voluntarily discloses that they were a victim of such abuse, Resolution 800 further urges character and fitness entities and other bar admission authorities to focus only on conduct or behavior that could “demonstrate a lack of character and fitness to practice law in a competent, ethical and professional manner.”
Maricarmen Garza, chair of the Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence, told delegates she has worked with many survivors who have struggled to share their stories of abuse and violence.
“The fear and the pain that accompany those experiences are so overwhelming that some survivors decide to remain silent, not to seek accountability of the perpetrators that offended them or to seek the relief that they are so justly entitled to,” Garza said. “In my work, I have also learned of colleagues—now fellow lawyers—who did not report their abuse for fear that it would label them in some way, that they would never be able to shake their status as victims or that they might be disbelieved.
“This reality only deepens my conviction that we must address these systemic barriers that further silence survivors within our profession,” she added.
Garza noted that the resolution does not seek to lower the standards for entry into the legal profession, but rather aims to refine these standards to reflect a more nuanced understanding of the impact of trauma.
“I ask you to reflect on the profound effect that passing this resolution will have, not only on the individual survivors who will benefit from it but on our moral integrity of our profession,” she said.
The House overwhelmingly adopted Resolution 800. This is not the first time the ABA has suggested changes to bar admittance interview questions. The House passed a measure in 2015 urging bar licensing entities to remove admission questions that ask about mental health history, diagnoses or treatment.
This story was originally published in the October/November 2024 issue of the ABA Journal under the headline: “Tread Carefully: Survivors of sexual assault should not have to disclose that abuse for bar admission, House says.”
