California Bar - Character & Fitness

[gibsonkent]

Hi,

I am in the midst of filling out a bunch of applications and am having to answer "yes" to academic probation in my history. What worries me is that through further research, there is a chance that this academic probation will prevent me from the bar after law school. I have looked on the bar website, but can't seem to find anything specifically about this.

Does anyone have any information regarding the california bar and academic probation?

Thank you in advance!

[Ron Gore]

Hi, Gibson!

I know it is daunting filling out the various paperwork to apply for law school and, later on, to the bar. I am not licensed to practice law in California, though I am admitted to the bar in another state, and have gone through that process. What I am about to say is not in any way legal advice regarding what to put on your specific application, because I am not authorized to provide such advice, either by PowerScore or by any state regulatory agency. Instead, I'll speak generally to the idea of what the state Bar is typically concerned about, and about my own experience.

To put this in context, I also was at one point in my academic career on academic probation, for taking too few credit hours in a semester (I had signed up for the minimum number of credit hours and then dropped a class I realized I hated). I can assure you, my parents were not amused, though I had a lot of fun that semester.

Both my brother and my sister are lawyers admitted to the bar in various jurisdictions (we currently have five jurisdictions among us). We are all good people, but nobody is perfect.

The Bar doesn't expect any other applicant to be perfect either. What they expect is that an applicant will be honest, and act with integrity. So long as a person is upfront and completely honest about any material difficulty they've had (in my case an academic probation), then it should not be a problem, unless the issue resulted from some form of lying, cheating or stealing. [Note: this assumes the offense is not a severe one, e.g., a felony criminal conviction].

Ideally, being admitted to the practice of law is entering into a position of public trust. The Bar actively seeks out actual and perceived dishonesty like a doctor looking to remove any traces of cancerous tissue. The goal of the Bar is to be permitted the right to continue to self-police, and so it carries out its role aggressively, lest public perception that lawyers can get away with anything grow beyond what it already is, resulting in additional government regulation of the profession.

At the same time, all humans are flawed. If the Bar is to continue to admit attorneys, they must admit humans (so far, at least ), and so the Bar admits thousands of new attorneys every year who have some blemish on their records. Several attorneys whom I know personally have been admitted to the bar with quite damaging dings already on their record, including in one case multiple criminal convictions (but only misdemeanors, and not for lying, cheating or stealing). Nobody's perfect, but the Bar expects everyone to be honest.

Hope that helps!

Ron

[gibsonkent]

Hi Mr. Gore,

Thank you for the detailed response. It definitely put my mind at ease and took away some stress!

[Jason Schultz]

Not that I have much to add to Ron's excellent response, but I will note that I too was put on academic probation during my undergraduate days, and it was never a serious concern for admittance in Colorado, Illinois, or Wisconsin.