Character and Fitness Forum
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Anonymous posting is only appropriate when you are revealing sensitive employment related information about a firm, job, etc. You may anonymously respond on topic to these threads. Unacceptable uses include: harassing another user, joking around, testing the feature, or other things that are more appropriate in the lounge.
Failure to follow these rules will get you outed, warned, or banned.
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Anonymous User
- Posts: 432501
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Character and Fitness
Can anyone who has been through the process comment on what the process is like as far as what kind of paperwork they ask for, how long it takes, what aspects of your background they look into, what they ask your school about etc.?
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bdubs
- Posts: 3727
- Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:23 pm
Re: Character and Fitness
IL allows 1Ls to get their C&F out of the way early. The application asked for 10 years of addresses, 10 years of job history (including supervisor contacts), and asked for a number of character references (I think 6 or 8, of which 2 were supposed to be undergrad professors). They also asked for the standard have you been arrested for anything or disciplined by any school, similar to law school applications.
It was a ton of information to have to gather (some was really hard to find). It's not clear what they do to verify it, but it seemed clear they were going to contact all of your references and previous employers. They will probably also run law enforcement background checks on you to make sure you aren't hiding anything.
It was a ton of information to have to gather (some was really hard to find). It's not clear what they do to verify it, but it seemed clear they were going to contact all of your references and previous employers. They will probably also run law enforcement background checks on you to make sure you aren't hiding anything.
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NotMyRealName09
- Posts: 1396
- Joined: Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:50 pm
Re: Character and Fitness
Somebody's got some skeletons, what are you hoping they won't find? We can tell you if they look for it.Anonymous User wrote:Can anyone who has been through the process comment on what the process is like as far as what kind of paperwork they ask for, how long it takes, what aspects of your background they look into, what they ask your school about etc.?
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Anonymous User
- Posts: 432501
- Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am
Re: Character and Fitness
Shit, that's a lot to get together.bdubs wrote:IL allows 1Ls to get their C&F out of the way early. The application asked for 10 years of addresses, 10 years of job history (including supervisor contacts), and asked for a number of character references (I think 6 or 8, of which 2 were supposed to be undergrad professors). They also asked for the standard have you been arrested for anything or disciplined by any school, similar to law school applications.
It was a ton of information to have to gather (some was really hard to find). It's not clear what they do to verify it, but it seemed clear they were going to contact all of your references and previous employers. They will probably also run law enforcement background checks on you to make sure you aren't hiding anything.
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Gail
- Posts: 977
- Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2011 11:11 am
Re: Character and Fitness
I'll comment because I've been doing this for the past two months now.
First, look at the character and fitness application now and fill it out. Call the board of examiners if you have questions about the meaning of items if you're confused. Anything that you don't know, find out in advance. Get documentation. Go to your Clerk of Courts. Juvenile probation office. Whatever. I even went to my high school and got disciplinary records - hopefully I won't ever need to show those.
If you can't find documentation, get someone from the court or police department to put that in writing. The clerk will have that available for you upon request.
It depends on how far back they want for your schooling. My state is ambiguous. It says school, but when I called and asked the examiners, they said no high school stuff, just college and university. Ask and if you're very worried, go to the physical board of examiners and ask someone of authority and whether or not you can quote them on it. Anyways, they will probably call the school, ask for disciplinary records, certificate of dean, etc.
It's somewhat of a mystery as to how bar examiners find this stuff. I'm not sure if they call every employer. They probably call every legal employer and every real employer, but it would seem really unproductive to call a big retail chain that you worked at when you were a freshman in college (honestly, I do not know who my supervisor was while working at Wal-Mart. SM?).
Regardless, get the information now. Begin calling your references, ask them to reference you and disclose anything that you're disclosing to the bar to them.
Keep records of your addendums to the law school and amend if needed. Time. Date. Contact. Everything.
If you have anything of concern, and I imagine you might, pay for a lawyer. I did. I was even able to get a better price because it was guaranteed business later. The lawyer has been extremely helpful for me. Well worth the fee.
First, look at the character and fitness application now and fill it out. Call the board of examiners if you have questions about the meaning of items if you're confused. Anything that you don't know, find out in advance. Get documentation. Go to your Clerk of Courts. Juvenile probation office. Whatever. I even went to my high school and got disciplinary records - hopefully I won't ever need to show those.
If you can't find documentation, get someone from the court or police department to put that in writing. The clerk will have that available for you upon request.
It depends on how far back they want for your schooling. My state is ambiguous. It says school, but when I called and asked the examiners, they said no high school stuff, just college and university. Ask and if you're very worried, go to the physical board of examiners and ask someone of authority and whether or not you can quote them on it. Anyways, they will probably call the school, ask for disciplinary records, certificate of dean, etc.
It's somewhat of a mystery as to how bar examiners find this stuff. I'm not sure if they call every employer. They probably call every legal employer and every real employer, but it would seem really unproductive to call a big retail chain that you worked at when you were a freshman in college (honestly, I do not know who my supervisor was while working at Wal-Mart. SM?).
Regardless, get the information now. Begin calling your references, ask them to reference you and disclose anything that you're disclosing to the bar to them.
Keep records of your addendums to the law school and amend if needed. Time. Date. Contact. Everything.
If you have anything of concern, and I imagine you might, pay for a lawyer. I did. I was even able to get a better price because it was guaranteed business later. The lawyer has been extremely helpful for me. Well worth the fee.
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