State bar reciprocity - what does it mean, what states do it

Imagine you're a lawyer, licensed in one state, and you'd like to move to another state. Or you get a case that is in another state - can you go to set up your practice in a new state, or take the out-of-state case? Possibly yes, if your state has reciprocity with the other.

State bars set their own reciprocity rules. If a state has decided not to reciprocate, then to practice in the "new" state, a lawyer has to take the bar exam for that state.

A good place to start researching this topic is here: Bar reciprocity.com

Keep in mind that the reciprocity process is not over night - anecdotal evidence suggests that the process can take 6 months. So if you're licensed in North Dakota, for example, practice for five years, then apply for reciprocity to Michigan, don't expect to be admitted overnight. Instead, the state bar will let you know in six months. 

Bar passage rates: the ABA approves a 75% passage rate for schools to receive ABA accreditation

The American Bar Association body that accredits law schools voted on Friday to tighten the bar exam-passage standard that schools must meet in order to get the organization’s accreditation blessing. The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar overwhelmingly decided to strengthen its bar pass standard for accredited law schools—a long-debated move proponents said is necessary to ensure law schools don’t admit students unlikely of passing the all-important attorney licensing exam.

The council voted for the stricter standard over the opposition of diversity advocates who warned that schools with large numbers of minority students could lose their accreditation and that the stricter rule would prompt schools to admit fewer minority students. That, in turn, would exacerbate the legal profession’s longstanding diversity problem, they argued.

Article here (via taxprof blog).

Lowest Bar Exam scores in nearly a decade prompts schools to seek answers, and state action

July 2014’s Multistate Bar Exam produced the lowest results in nearly a decade, spurring questions about test reliability and a search for alternatives.

About 80 law deans sought details on how questions were chosen and tests were scored, but the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) did not provide additional information, which the NCBE did not provide.

Article here.(via aba journal).

Additionally a few state's Bar Associations are making efforts for applicants to be able to "waive" the MBE portion of their state bar application. This is similar to Wisconsin's approach to licensing new attorneys.

Multi- state bar admissions: You can't fool the bar

Here's an interesting report on a case of a lawyer moving from one state to another in pursuit of bar admission but failing to make required disclosures in both jurisdictions.

From the state bar of Michigan blog.