Law Grad with No Plan to Repay Debt Fails Character and Fitness Mandate, Ohio Top Court Says

Ohio State University law grad Hassan Jonathan Griffin of Columbus, Ohio, has a part-time job in the public defender’s office and no feasible plan to repay his law-school and credit-card debt. That combination means Griffin has so far failed to satisfy the character and fitness qualification to get a law…

Jan 13, 2011 3:42 PM CST

Would-Be Ind. Lawyers Who Sued over Mental Health Questions Protected in Discovery

A judge has prohibited Indiana bar examiners from conducting further discovery about the mental health of would-be lawyers who filed a class-action suit over treatment questions in applications for a law license. U.S. District Judge Tanya Pratt upheld a magistrate’s order barring the line of discovery, the National Law Journal…

Jan 5, 2011 5:40 PM CST

9th Circuit Rules Blind Law Grad Can Use Computer Aids, Despite Hacking Fears

A blind UCLA law grad should able to take the California bar exam using computer equipment that gives her the best chance of passing, a federal appeals court has ruled. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Stephanie Enyart should be able to use special equipment that…

Jan 5, 2011 2:57 PM CST

Law Prof Links Lawyer Regs and ‘Gaping Hole’ in Legal Services for Middle Class

A University of Illinois law professor thinks a change in lawyer regulations could help middle-class defendants who are being targeted in mass foreclosures and debt-collection suits. The answer, says corporate law professor Larry Ribstein, lies in a change in the “stranglehold” of lawyer regulations that prevent innovation and a focus…

Dec 1, 2010 11:30 AM CST

Uniform Bar Exam Is Picking Up Steam

Dec 1, 2010 6:25 AM CST

Outsourcing, Not Bar Review Prep, Evidently Part of Thomson Reuters’ Strategic Plan

Thomson Reuters, the owner of West Publishing and BarBri, has a new strategic plan, and it apparently does not include the bar prep business. Students taking the BarBri course got an e-mail yesterday evening informing them that BarBri’s parent company is exploring the possible sale of the business, Above the…

Nov 19, 2010 12:07 PM CST

ABA President Asks Obama to Push India to Allow Foreign Legal Offices

Updated: ABA President Stephen N. Zack is hoping President Obama’s recent visit to India will be helpful to American lawyers who want to advise clients there without obtaining a law license from the country. India requires all lawyers who practice law in the country to be licensed there, even if…

Nov 10, 2010 5:04 PM CST

In-House Counsel in NY Shouldn’t Have to Pass State Bar Exam, Bar Group Says

In-house lawyers with a “continuous presence” in the state of New York shouldn’t be required to pass the state bar exam, according to the New York State Bar Association. Bar leaders have asked the state’s top court to drop the exam requirement but to require payment of the $375 lawyer…

Nov 10, 2010 1:52 PM CST

Oops. Partial NY Bar Results Posted Early, So Officials Publish Full List Ahead of Schedule

After accidentally posting a partial list of those who passed the New York bar exam for a brief time last week, the state Board of Law Examiners decided to make the full pass list for the July exam public earlier than expected. Initially, the plan was to alert test-takers tomorrow…

Nov 8, 2010 9:08 PM CST

Israeli Attorney Is 1st Foreign Law School Grad to Become Wis. Lawyer, Under New Rule

An Israeli attorney who earned her law degree from Bar Ilan University Law School in her home country is the first graduate of a foreign law school to win admission to the Wisconsin bar under a new rule that no longer requires graduation from an American Bar Association-accredited institution. Deborah…

Oct 6, 2010 12:00 AM CDT

Wis. Supreme Court Upholds Bar Exam Waiver for In-State Law Grads

Is there a relationship between acing the bar exam and being a good lawyer? Wisconsin Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson isn’t so sure. She raised the issue when she joined other members of the court Monday in refusing to repeal the state’s diploma privilege, which allows graduates of state law schools…

Oct 5, 2010 11:28 AM CDT

Online Aid for Patent Exam

Website offers tips, sample questions

Oct 1, 2010 7:10 AM CDT

Law Student Seeks Pardon of Assault Conviction So He Can Take Bar

Originally charged a decade ago with attempted murder, Shay Golden pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and was sentenced to three years in prison. Now the 31-year-old second-year student at Birmingham School of Law is seeking a pardon of that conviction so he can take the Alabama bar, reports the St.…

Sep 30, 2010 9:50 PM CDT

ABA Group Backs Uniform Bar Exam

One country, one bar exam? That is far from the situation in the United States right now, and that is not likely to be the reality at any point in the foreseeable future. Yet while individual states regulate the activities of their own lawyers and administer their own bar exams,…

Sep 15, 2010 9:38 PM CDT

New Pay Package Keeps Time Warner GC in Third Place

Time Warner’s general counsel has signed a new contract that pays him $1.25 million a year, plus a possible bonus of $2.5 million. The pay package puts Paul Cappaccio third on Corporate Counsel’s list of the top paid- general counsel, THR, Esq. reports. It also puts him ahead of his…

Sep 8, 2010 12:20 PM CDT